Driven
by SamusOlderBrother
Summary: A chance encounter in Naruto's childhood dramatically changes his life. He is focused, introspective, and not desperate for attention. Rated M because people die, bleed, and swear.
1. Prelude

**Author's Note: **I'm going to try to avoid leaving author's notes in future chapters. Many of the concepts I'm going to use are drawn from logical extensions of the series, but some were inspired by other fanfictions. I'm going to try to focus on adventure and friendship, but I doubt I'll be able to avoid peppering in some philosophy and a little bit of humor. I'm going to avoid romances because that's just not what I want to work on right now. But I will attempt to develop every relationship. I'm also going to try to avoid using the canon arcs as a backdrop because some of them just suck. I'll keep the chunin exams because they allow me to write tons of fight scenes and that's a huge part of adventure. I hope you readers enjoy the story for as long as I write it.

**Prelude**

In a small urban village, hidden amidst a vast forest, a stadium is packed with people from many different nations. A blond boy, barely a teen, with sun-kissed skin stands across from a dark haired boy in the dirt field at the center of the stadium. The blond boy's eyes are a bright blue and his hair spikes out at all angles as his arms form a protective guard in front of him. The dark haired boy's long, straight hair catches the slight breeze as he speaks.

"You cannot win," the dark-haired boy says, his face a mask of stone.

The blond boy smiles, the hair-thin scars on his cheeks looking more like whiskers as he does. "We won't know that until the end of the match," he says. "Unless you're quitting?" he asks, disappointment dripping at the end.

The boy with the long dark hair moves into a fighting stance. "Your fate is to lose," he says before launching many quick finger and palm strikes at the blond boy.

As the blond boy dodges, a whole clan that shares similar features to the dark-haired boy watches with veins protruding around their eyes. They see the chakra network in the blond boy and wonder at its oddity.

The blond boy dodged the first strike, but kicked the incoming arm on the second strike before bending and flipping away from the barrage the dark-haired boy unleashed.

"Neji-san is going to kill Naruto if he keeps up that pace," a man comments unheard by the fighting boys.

Naruto's arm lashes out from his pouch sending three kunai speeding toward the dark-haired boy. A quick hand sign with a tiny surge of chakra and three become three hundred, forcing Neji to stop and rotate a protective dome of chakra into existence.

A man in the stands watches in surprise, not that his face shows it. Nobody taught Neji the kaiten defensive technique, yet he used it perfectly.

Neji's legs launch him back into Naruto and he begins striking for the tenketsu in Naruto's body. Closing any of them would limit Naruto's options in the fight, while closing all of them would end the fight.

"You are within range of my divination," Neji says as he backs away and then surges forward to strike at Naruto.

Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes, thirty-two strikes, and then sixty-four strikes combined have closed down the majority of tenketsu, the choke points in the chakra circulatory system, within Naruto's body. Even his core is no longer lit with the fire of chakra.

Naruto drops to one knee and coughs up some blood. "Heh. That hurts," he says.

"You've lost. Your tenketsu are closed. You cannot mold chakra. You require medical attention," Neji says, his tone never wavering.

"Are you asking me if I'm giving up? Because the match hasn't been called yet and I'm not done," Naruto says aloud.

'I need a chakra burst big enough to open my tenketsu,' he thinks inwardly, hastily adding, 'please.'

Neji turns to the proctor and says, "The match is over. I have no wish to hurt Naruto. He is _beneath_ me."

Neji's head snaps back to Naruto as his byakugan, the ability of his clan, shows a strange, red chakra surging through Naruto's swelling chakra system. Nobody's chakra pathways should be that large, but Naruto's seem to have swelled to triple their already abnormally wide girth. And then, as quickly as it had appeared, the deep red chakra was gone, replaced by Naruto's normal blue chakra.

"You deserve every ounce of the ass-kicking I'm about to deliver," Naruto says as he stands. His chakra begins compressing in his core, layering over on itself repeatedly until it appears solid to the byakugan. The compressed chakra suddenly surges into Naruto's body, supercharging his muscles and bones with the super-dense chakra.

Anyone in the stands who blinked would have missed the entire exchange. The ground behind Naruto crumpled and the crack of the sound barrier being broken reverberated through the stadium.

Neji had time to bring one arm up in an attempt to block the incoming elbow strike, not that he could see exactly what was happening. His arm moved on instinct alone to protect him. The strike forced his arm back, absorbing some of the blow, but he was still flung over the hundred yards and into the wall in less time than it took to blink. Neji's impact against the wall rippled and crumbled the concrete from the force of it, leaving a Neji-shaped dent several inches deep.

Neji coughed blood and collapsed to the ground, unconscious and badly beaten.

Naruto's elbow is still extended in front of him and his body is where Neji's was only a split second before. "HOLY CRAP, THAT HURT!" he screams as he grabs his elbow and begins hopping around. "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!"

The proctor, in his green jonin vest, appears next to the downed Neji and checks the boy's vital signs. "We need a medic!" he shouts, gesturing for a stretcher. "This match goes to Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto's mouth turns into a face-splitting grin as he clutches his elbow and moves to the contestant viewing area. He'd only used a single technique to win the match decisively. He went for the medics on standby to check out his elbow. The shunshin technique is supposed to be a supplementary technique, not an offensive technique. It's also not generally used with super-dense chakra, but most shinobi don't try compressing chakra as they mold it.

Naruto is not most shinobi. He does not accept defeat. He does not quit. He is driven.


	2. Chapter 1 -- Used Books

**Chapter 1**

The urban environment of Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves, is a place where anyone could get lost. Orphans, common in a village of shinobi, are still largely ignored unless they do something to draw attention. An orphan, not trying to draw anyone's attention, can get lost easier than most.

Naruto wandered the streets, taking in the diversity of it all. He was only five years old, but he was sick and tired of the orphanage. He would get an apartment as soon as school started, but he was stuck with many other children and only one caretaker until then. Many of the children in the village were orphans, a result of many wars and various natural disasters, and the system was strained to bursting.

Naruto's simple t-shirt with an orange swirl on the front contrasted with the green shorts he wore. They were hand-me-downs, but not ratty or ragged. Most street vendors ignored children, but one old man saw Naruto's expression of inquiry and wonder as Naruto was walking.

"Hello there, young man! Why don't you come over here and see what I've got for sale?" the old man called out.

Naruto looked around for someone else that the man could be calling to, but saw no one. He pointed at his chest and mouthed the word, "me?"

"Yes, you! Come on over! I'm sure you'll love what I've got," the old man said, his smile deepening the wrinkles around his eyes.

Naruto carefully walked over to the strange man. He was sure he hadn't done anything and yet this old man was paying attention to him.

"That's an interesting shirt you've got there, young man. Where did you get it?" the old man asked as Naruto walked up.

"Oh. I dunno. At the orphanage," Naruto replied.

"Ah. I see. So you don't have any family then?" the old man asked.

Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, kid: that sucks," the old man said. "But! I've got something that should take your mind off it for a while."

Naruto looked quizzically at the man. "Whaddya mean?"

"Books," the old man said.

"Awwwww," Naruto groaned. "I HATE books!"

The old man opened his eyes wide and grabbed his chest dramatically. "You HATE books?!" he exclaimed in shock and horror.

"Yeah. They're stupid!" Naruto yelled.

"But… why?" the old man asked, his voice trembling.

"Don'tcha listen? They're stupid!" Naruto said.

"What kind of books have you been reading that are stupid?" the old man asked.

"Reading books. They have them at the orphanage," Naruto replied.

"What are they about?" the old man pressed further.

"I dunno. Stupid stuff," Naruto replied.

"Oh. I see. Well not all books are about stupid stuff, you know," the old man said. "I bet I can pick a book that you'll like."

"I don't think so," Naruto answered.

"Let me guess: you like adventure and action, right?" the old man said knowingly.

"Yeah…" Naruto replied tenuously. "How did you know?"

"I was your age once, you know. And when I was your age, I liked action and adventure," the old man said as he began rifling through a shallow box of books.

"I still think books are stupid," Naruto stubbornly said.

"I'll make you a deal, how about that?" the man said as he moved one pile of books around and dug into another pile.

"What kinda deal?" Naruto asked.

"I'm going to give you a book for free, but you have to promise to read it. And if you like it, you have to give it back to me," the old man said.

"I dunno…" Naruto replied.

"If you don't like it, just come back and tell me what you didn't like," the old man said. "It's a free book and you don't have to share it with anybody. It's all yours." The old man pulled a small, green book out of the piles he'd created in his search. "Found it."

Naruto looked on as the old man extended the book to him. His face was crumpled up in deep thought, but the old man seemed very serious. Suddenly, his hand shot out and grabbed the book. "Deal!" he said as he ran away.

Once he got to a secluded area between buildings, he looked down at the tiny treasure that was all his. "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja by Jiraiya" the cover read. He opened the cover and saw someone had written inside. There was kanji that read, "To my favorite student," followed by a scrawl of romanji that Naruto couldn't read.

Naruto sat in the alley and slowly read the book until the sun set. The old man was right: he loved the book. He hid it as he quickly ran back to the orphanage and didn't let it go even when he slept. He normally vied for attention during the day, but the next morning he slunk off alone to read the book.

Two days later, Naruto was back at the used bookseller's cart. The old man had a smug grin as Naruto approached. "So, young man, did you like it?" the old man said.

"Yeah! It was awesome! And the book is about someone with my name!" Naruto said.

"Really? I've never heard of someone named, 'Naruto,' outside of that book," the old man replied, genuinely surprised.

"Well now you have! My name's Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna grow up to be just like the Naruto in this book!" Naruto shouted.

"Uzumaki, you say?" the old man muttered. "I'm sure you'll do whatever you set your mind to."

"Believe it!" Naruto said.

"I believe we had a deal though," the man said, extending his hand down to the boy.

Naruto looked crestfallen, but he would stay true to his word, just like the Naruto in the book. He handed the tiny green treasure back to the old man.

"Not many copies like this, you know," the old man said.

"Yeah, I figured it was special cause it had an autograph inside," Naruto replied.

"Oh. Well, yes. That too. But this particular copy once belonged to the Fourth Hokage," the old man said casually as he put the book back into the bin.

Naruto stopped cold. "T-that…" he stuttered as he looked at his dirty hands. "I'm sorry! My hands were dirty! I didn't know!" Naruto said, clearly upset as he grabbed the old man's pant leg. "Please don't be mad!"

The old man laughed and said, "Don't worry about it. Books are meant to be read!"

Naruto sniffed and pulled away, but didn't leave.

"Was there something else that you wanted, young Naruto?" the old man asked.

"Yeah. Ummm… you see… I was wondering…" Naruto started.

"Come on. Spit it out. I won't bite," the old man said.

"Can you tell me some other books to read?" Naruto asked. "Maybe another one by Jiraiya."

The old man laughed and replied, "I don't have any other books by Jiraiya, but I'm sure we can find something for you to read."

"But I don't have any money," Naruto blurted.

The old man turned and looked very serious as he said, "I see."

Naruto started to sweat, thinking that the old man would make him leave.

"You've already shown that you're a man of your word and I'm in need of good conversation, so how about a new deal?" the old man said.

"Sure!" Naruto said.

"Don't you want to hear what it is before you agree?" the old man asked.

"Oh. Yeah. A' course," Naruto said. "What's the new deal?"

"I'll lend you a book to read. You have to read it then bring it back in good condition," the man explained.

"Okay!" Naruto quickly agreed.

"I'm not finished," the old man said.

"Oh," Naruto said sheepishly.

"You have to bring it back in good condition and discuss it with me," the old man said.

When Naruto didn't speak for several long seconds, the old man added, "I'm finished now."

"Old man, you've got yourself a deal!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

"Excellent!" the old man replied. "Now let's get you a new book to read, eh?"


	3. Chapter 2 -- The Hokage

A/N: I have to put in the obligatory disclaimer that I don't own Naruto.

**Chapter 2**

"You seem down, Naruto-kun. What's up?" the old man asked while Naruto pouted.

It had been a year and a few months since they'd met and made their deal. Naruto was such a constant fixture of the tiny used book store that the old man had gotten a folding chair for Naruto when he was around.

"I'm not The Best," Naruto replied, turning in the chair to face the old man.

"The Best, huh?" the old man answered as he sorted books onto a shelf.

"Yeah," Naruto clarified.

"The best at what?" the man asked.

"Being a ninja," Naruto said. "What else?"

The old man laughed. Naruto had figured out that the man never laughed at him, but he found some of the things Naruto said very funny.

"What's so funny, Old Man?" Naruto asked.

"Who _is_ the best ninja?" the old man prompted, still smiling.

"Easy: the Fourth Hokage. He beat a bijuu," Naruto answered.

"But isn't he dead?" the old man continued.

"Yeah. So what?" Naruto said.

"So if he's dead, then does it still count? I mean, who could ever take the title of 'best' from a dead man?" the old man said, putting down the last book.

"Huh," Naruto replied. "I never thought of it like that."

The old man bonked Naruto over the head with a rolled up newspaper that seemed to appear in his hand as if by magic. "That's the problem with you youngsters, you know. You need to think more," the old man said.

"Hey! Stop whackin' me!" Naruto shouted.

"Start thinking and I'll stop whacking!" the old man returned, holding the newspaper behind his back. "Who is the best ninja?"

"I guess Hokage-jiji is the best ninja. I mean he's the Third Hokage," Naruto answered.

"What about other villages?" the old man asked.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Other villages have ninjas too, right?" the old man asked.

"Yeah."

"Well are there ninjas in the other villages that are better than Lord Third?" the old man continued.

"Well, no," Naruto answered.

"How do you know?" the old man asked. "For that matter, how do you know that Lord Third is the best ninja in our village?"

"He's the Hokage, duh," Naruto said.

"And that means that he's the best ninja in the world?" the old man prompted.

"Of course!" Naruto replied.

"But how do you know that?" the old man continued.

"Everyone says so!" Naruto answered.

"But what if everyone is wrong?" the old man said. "What then? How would you know who the best ninja in the world was if you couldn't rely on anyone else in the world?"

Naruto frowned. "I don't know," he said.

"Think about it, Naruto-kun," the old man said. "You don't have to answer right away."

The old man shuffled over and handed Naruto a book. "I don't know if you'll like this one. But we can talk about it when you finish," the old man explained. "Now go play outside or something. Ninjas are supposed to be strong and nobody gets strong sitting inside all day."

Naruto took the book and stuffed it in his pocket before waving and running out of the shop. "See you tomorrow, Old Man!" he shouted as he left.

Naruto ran through the streets to his favorite lunch place: Ichiraku Ramen. The noodle stand was quickly Naruto's favorite, both for the price-point, which didn't dent his meager allowance, and for the deliciousness of the dish prepared by the chef.

"Miso with pork and make it quick, Ayame-chan! I'm supposed to be back at school already," Naruto said with a grin.

The server shook her head with a quiet, "tut-tut," and wrote the order down before passing it to her father, the chef. "Won't you get in trouble for missing class, Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"Yeah, but they'll just make me sit and practice ninja exercises. It's extra training! They're rewarding me!" Naruto exclaimed as he beamed a smile.

Ayame shook her head and went about her work until Naruto's order came up, which was a shorter wait than instant ramen packages. Ayame slid the bowl to Naruto, who proceeded to wolf down the delicious soup in a manner best described as comically absurd. Naruto plopped down some cash and popped up from the seat at the stand.

"Thanks, Ayame-chan! Thanks, Teuchi-san!" Naruto shouted as he ran back to the school.

Naruto's absence was not ignored and he was caught swiftly and given after-school detention. Naruto did his best to pay attention in class, but listening to the teacher was as stimulating as listening to a brook babble. In the dark. Under the stars. In summer. So Naruto fell asleep at some point during the lecture.

He awoke to the assistant yelling, "NARUTO! WAKE UP!"

Naruto lifted his head, a piece of paper stuck to his cheek. "Huh?" he asked.

"Time for detention!" the assistant said. "Let's go."

Naruto did his best to hide his smirk as the assistant walked him to another room with two other boys.

"You're all going to practice molding chakra. This is an important exercise…" the man explained and Naruto zoned out. Naruto had heard the lecture dozens of times before and could recite it, if he wanted. He watched closely as the chunin stuck the leaf against his forehead and it stuck as the chunin walked back to his desk and began shuffling papers. "Well, get going!"

Naruto picked up a leaf and began the exercise. He kept at it even when the other two boys ran out. Naruto wouldn't quit. He kept at it until the chunin kicked him out and closed the Academy.

Naruto swung by Ichiraku's again for dinner before going home and starting the new book. He had a lot of work to do if he ever wanted to be the best.

—0—

Naruto sat in the yard at the Academy reading his book as a pair of girls approached him. One had pink hair and the other had blond. He vaguely remembered the pink-haired one being nice to him on a playground once before he left the orphanage.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" the pink-haired one asked.

"Reading," Naruto replied without looking up.

"Really?" the blond-haired one asked, obviously not believing him.

"Really," Naruto said, still trying to finish the page.

"But that's a different book than the one you had yesterday," the blond-haired one said.

"Really?" the pink-haired one asked.

"Really," Naruto answered both.

"So you read a lot, huh?" the blond-haired one asked.

"Yep," Naruto said as he folded the book shut on the last page. "You wanna join me for lunch?"

"What? Like a date?" the pink one asked.

"Sure!" Naruto replied with a smile.

"Nope. We've got our lunches here," the blond one answered. "We just wanted to know: if you read so much, how come you suck at school?"

Naruto shrugged. "School's boring, I guess," he answered. "Anyway, I gotta eat. Bye," he finished with a wave and walked out.

Naruto bounded through the streets to the used bookstore, arriving in record time, according to the stopwatch he managed to buy.

"Yatta!" he shouted as he jumped up with a victory celebration.

He walked into the unusually quiet store and saw the old man sitting in the chair.

"Old Man!" Naruto shouted, but the old man didn't stir. "Hey! Old Man! Wake up!" Naruto shouted as he walked up to the old man. Naruto's hand went to shake the old man, but he quickly withdrew it when he felt how cold the old man was. His eyes started tearing up as he reached out again and shook the cold, old man. "Wake up, Old Man! Please! Wake up!"

Naruto continued to shout until someone came in to check on the commotion from the street. And then Naruto stopped making any noise at all when the police escorted him out of the building.

He sat across the street against a wall watching the bookstore. He was still clutching the last book the old man had given him to read when the Hokage appeared behind him hours after the old man's body and the police were gone.

"You were very close with Tsurichi, weren't you, Naruto-kun?" the old Hokage asked. He was wearing his formal robes and hat, as he always did outside.

"Who?" Naruto asked, still in a daze.

"The man who owned the used book store. His name was Tsurichi," the Hokage explained.

"Oh. He never said," Naruto answered. "What happened? Why did he have to die?"

"He was old, Naruto. I'm told his heart just stopped beating sometime this morning. That happens when people get old," the Hokage explained.

"But it's not fair," Naruto whispered.

The Hokage looked at the boy. He was accustomed to consoling people whose loved ones died well before their time. This should be comparatively easy.

"It's a better death than many in this world receive, Naruto. He died an old man, of natural causes, in his home. Not many people get that. Many people die young or in battle or in the hospital in great pain," the Hokage said.

"But he was my friend! I don't want him to go!" Naruto shouted, tears returning to his eyes.

"I know, Naruto. But it's part of life. A new generation is born and the old dies. At least he had a friend to visit him. He wasn't much older than I am and most of my friends have died already. He must have been very alone until you came along," the Hokage said.

"But now I'm alone," Naruto said quietly, looking at the ground.

The Hokage knew the fate of orphans in the village. He always wanted to do something for them, but it seemed like there was always something more important. Shinobi World Wars, a rampaging bijuu, political jockeying from people who should be his friends, and rumors of a possible coup, both in the village and the Fire Court, all took precedence over the level of scrutiny that he would like to give the orphans.

'Tsurichi managed to stop Naruto's emerging pranks. Maybe I should…' he thought.

"I'm sure it won't be the same, but you can come see me at lunch like you used to see Tsurichi," the Hokage offered.

"Do you have books too?" Naruto asked hopefully.

The Hokage wasn't sure what the boy was talking about. "I have some. But I'm not a used book store," he answered.

"Oh," Naruto said, obviously dejected.

"Have you been to the library?" the Hokage asked.

"What's a library?" Naruto replied honestly.

The Hokage stopped. Naruto was young enough that it was possible nobody had thought to tell Naruto about libraries. "It's a place where they keep books. People borrow the books from the library and then return them when they've finished reading the books," the Hokage answered.

"Do they talk about the books after they read them?" Naruto asked.

"Some people do that. Would you like to talk about the books you read with me?" the Hokage asked.

Naruto looked at the aging Hokage with a bit of hope in his eyes. "Yeah. I'd like that," he said.

The Hokage walked Naruto back into the bookstore. The old man's body was gone and the store was closed, but the Hokage had a bunch of keys, one of which opened the door. "Tsurichi left you something," the Hokage said.

"Huh?" was Naruto's insightful response.

"Tsurichi left a will. It means that he wrote down what he wanted done with all of his possessions in case he died. He wanted you to have a certain book," the Hokage said. And then he knelt down conspiratorially and whispered, "It's one that one of my students wrote. I haven't read it, but I understand it's pretty good."

"You have students? Will you train me? I'll be the best student ever!" Naruto asked.

The Hokage nearly shook his head, but then changed his mind and answered, "I have a lot to do as Hokage. I can't take time to train just anyone. You have to do well at the Academy and then we can discuss it," the Hokage answered. He walked behind the cash register and opened it with another key from the ring. He pulled out the small green book from under the cash drawer. He opened it and his eyes widened at the inscription in the front cover before he quickly regained control of himself.

Naruto set down the book he'd kept in his pocket and slowly took the green book from the Hokage's outstretched hand.

Hiruzen thought, 'It must be fate,' as the boy took the book.

"I will send a note to your class excusing your absence for the rest of today, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen explained. "But you have to go back tomorrow."

Naruto looked up at the old Hokage and nodded. "Okay," he said as he wandered out of the store and down the street.

For the first time since he'd met the old bookstore owner, Naruto wandered the streets of the village. It hurt to know that his friend was gone. Somehow, the joy he'd felt discussing all of those books with the old man made it hurt less and more at the same time. He thought back on the most recent discussion and one thought kept echoing through his mind: "But how do you know that?" Somehow, Naruto knew that that question would haunt and inspire him in the future.

After a while, he found that the library building was up ahead and Naruto decided that if a nice old bookstore clerk could make him think about things then the Hokage would surely be able to teach him even more. He walked into the library intent on finding something new to read so he could talk to the Hokage about it at lunch the next day.


	4. Chapter 3 -- Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 3

"Chakra is the combination of physical and spiritual energies," the teaching assistant repeated from behind a teacher's desk. "When you mix your physical and spiritual energy, you create chakra. When you focus your chakra to a single point on your forehead, the leaf will stick. That—"

"How much chakra?" Naruto interrupted.

The teaching assistant with a scar across his face was startled at the interruption. "Enough to stick the leaf to your forehead," he answered. "Not very much for a trained shinobi, but Academy students don't have as much overall chakra."

"How much is that though?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know. Chakra doesn't have a unit of measurement. You'll feel it when it's right," the teen explained.

"What does it feel like when it's right?" Naruto pressed.

"Like the leaf is stuck to your head," the teen answered, now slightly frustrated.

Naruto thought about the answer and barely stuck the leaf to his head with chakra, but also created a fine mist of chakra smoke in the room.

"You're using way too much," the teen told Naruto.

"How do you know?" Naruto asked.

"I can feel the extra," the teen replied. "But you're also creating smoke."

"That's what I've been trying to ask you about!" Naruto exclaimed.

The teen sighed. Naruto was very, extremely not clever. But the boy was insatiably curious and never gave up. He admired Naruto's attitude. He didn't have that kind of attitude when he was orphaned and Naruto's age. He really didn't understand how Naruto could be so upbeat, but he was happy for the boy and didn't mind helping after school while he graded papers.

"You're making a bunch of chakra and then using a tiny amount to stick the leaf to your forehead. Try making a tiny amount of chakra to stick the leaf instead," the teen suggested.

"I can't tell how much chakra I'm making! I can't figure out how to make certain amounts!" Naruto yelled in frustration.

The teen teaching assistant gave it some consideration, but couldn't think of a solution.

"You can feel when I make too much chakra, right?" Naruto asked.

"I can feel when you use way too much because it's obvious. I'm not sensitive enough to feel you mold chakra like a sensor ninja though," the teen answered.

"So I need to find a sensor ninja to help me with this?" Naruto continued.

"It looks that way, Naruto-kun. I'm sorry that I couldn't be more helpful," the teaching assistant answered with a sigh.

"That's okay! 'Failure is its own reward,'" Naruto sagely quoted before walking out of the classroom.

Naruto walked to the Hokage's office. It wasn't lunchtime, but the sun was nearly set, so he figured that the Hokage shouldn't be too busy.

Walking through the tower, Naruto was largely ignored. Only certain areas were off-limits to civilians and the Hokage's office was not one of them. The Hokage, Naruto had found in the last few months, was very knowledgeable about the ninja arts, but was different when it came to discussing books. The old man at the bookstore was always probing Naruto to think about this or that character's decisions and their effects on events in the story. The Hokage wanted to know the events in the book and his reasons for liking this or that character.

When Naruto began analyzing the decisions of the characters, it took the Hokage by surprise. Naruto had to explain that the old man had always wanted to know those things too. The Hokage wasn't as probing as the old man had been, but he paid attention and discussed the books that Naruto checked out of the library.

Naruto walked through the Hokage's open door and found him sitting on his knees on a pillow, holding a brush in front of a large sheet of paper.

"I know it isn't our usual meeting time, Hokage-jiji, but I have a question," Naruto asked.

"And it requires the attention of your Hokage, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked from the pillow.

"I don't know who else to ask," Naruto replied.

"Well, spit it out, Naruto-kun. I have important Hokage things to do," Hiruzen said with a wink.

Naruto smiled. "I want to hire a sensor ninja," Naruto said.

"A sensor, eh? Will it be dangerous?" the Hokage asked. "Have you lost something important? Could you do it yourself?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, Hokage-jiji! I just need help with chakra and Iruka-sensei at school said that he couldn't help me more because he isn't a sensor type so I wanted to know how much it would cost to hire one to help me figure out my chakra," Naruto said in a single breath.

The Hokage took up a thoughtful pose for a moment before making a few quick hand signals. A masked woman in ANBU armor appeared bowing on one knee in front of the Hokage.

"Naruto, this is Ratto," the Hokage said. "Ratto, Naruto has questions that require a sensor ninja. Take fifteen minutes and answer them. If he requires more, he will need to commission a mission so help him write the request."

Naruto's smile threatened to tear his head in half. "Thanks, Hokage-jiji!"

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun. Ratto, take Naruto to the roof where you two won't disturb anyone inside," the Hokage ordered.

The woman picked Naruto up like a sack of potatoes and unceremoniously sped up to the roof in a series of shunshins.

"Naruto, explain your problem," the woman tersely said as she sat him down on the roof.

"I don't know how much chakra I'm making," Naruto said.

"I don't understand," the cold woman replied. "Elaborate."

Naruto plucked a leaf up off the ground and held it in his hand. "Do you know the leaf exercise? The one from the Academy?" he said as he stuck the leaf to his head, this time without a cloud of smoke. Barely.

The woman nodded. "You are using too much chakra," she said.

"Yeah, I know," Naruto replied. "All the extra just kind of dissipates or something. Iruka-sensei wasn't really clear on it. Or I didn't understand, anyway."

When she didn't say anything, Naruto elaborated, "I want to know how much chakra is the right amount for any given jutsu or technique. But I don't even know what the proper amount is for this stupid leaf exercise so can you please tell me when I'm making the right amount?"

The woman's head tilted. "That's all?" she asked.

"That's all," Naruto replied.

"Okay. Talk your way through every step of the process and I will tell you what you are doing," she answered.

Naruto focused and began molding chakra in his chakra core. "I'm mixing my physical and spiritual energies together to form chakra," he said.

"Too much," the woman stonily said.

"I barely started to mix it!" he shouted.

"It's too much," the woman repeated.

"I didn't even start to mold it!" he shouted.

"And yet, it's too much," she calmly replied.

Naruto sighed and started over. "Alright, I'm barely mixing anything at all," he said.

"Still too much," the woman said.

"I can't make any less! If I make less, I won't make any at all!" Naruto shouted.

"Try," the woman said.

"Okay, I'm—"

"Too much," the woman said.

"GRRRRRRR!"

"Start over."

"Okay. Starting from scratch..."

"Too much."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Maybe we should spend the rest of the time filling out paperwork for a mission request," the woman suggested.

"NO! I can do this!" Naruto shouted.

"Still too much," the woman said. "And now it's unstable and leaking. We should really work on that form. I don't think you'll figure it out in the remaining eight minutes."

"DAMMIT!" Naruto screamed. "Fine. I'll fill out the stupid form," he grumped.

A mission request form appeared in the woman's hand along with a pen that she clicked to extend the tip.

"Most of the form is self-explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions. And stop molding chakra, please. The roof is already saturated with your excess," she said in that same monotone voice that was really starting to bother Naruto.

He filled out the form without her aid and she took him back down, ignoring all pleas for his dignity, into the Hokage's office.

"Naruto Uzumaki has filled out a request for a D-rank mission, Hokage-sama," she reported from one knee. "I have the request."

"Thoughts, Ratto?" the Hokage prodded.

"He does not know how to make small amounts of chakra, Hokage-sama. He wishes to learn how, which appears to be by trial and error. This will take some time to accomplish and more skill than most teachers at the Academy have; therefore, an extended D-rank would be required and a jonin or special jonin with a sensor specialty would be necessary to aid young Uzumaki," she answered.

"Naruto-kun, how important is this to you?" the Hokage asked.

"I need to learn this in order to be a ninja, don't I?" Naruto responded. "This is the most important thing to me right now."

"I'll make you a deal then. If you manage to go a full week without getting in trouble at school and you do all of your homework and pass any quizzes, then I will pay for someone to take this mission," the Hokage stated.

Naruto waited a moment before responding, "Is that all?"

The Hokage answered, "You must continue to complete your homework, avoid trouble, and pass your quizzes for the mission to continue. That's all."

"Then you've got yourself a deal!" Naruto said immediately.

The Hokage might have had an evil glint in his eye. Or the rest of his ANBU guards might have been imagining it. Nobody really wanted to see for sure.

—0—

The tall, grey-haired ANBU in the dog mask knelt before the Hokage. The Lord Third was the Hokage, but not his Hokage. His sensei would always and forever be _his_ Hokage. But the Lord Third was whom he served now.

"Hokage-sama," the man said as he shifted his mask to the side of his head. "My mission is to help a boy with chakra control?"

"That is correct, Kakashi," the Hokage replied.

"What year is it?" Kakashi asked.

"Do you think I'm going senile, Kakashi?" the Hokage asked.

Kakashi wisely didn't answer.

"It's a simple D-rank, but rather than train with your ANBU squad, I thought you might enjoy a break. Plus, you are the perfect candidate to help this Academy student with his problem," the Hokage explained.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said.

The Hokage handed the mission assignment scroll to Kakashi and said, "All of the details are in there. You might consider wearing civilian clothes."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied, taking the scroll and then vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

—0—

Inside room 113 of the Academy, Naruto waited patiently. He had a secret to waiting that he had learned from a kind old man who held a special place in his young heart. He read books.

On this particular occasion, he was reading "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja" for the gajillionth time. He could probably recite it word for word, but it still held his attention.

"Naruto Uzumaki," a strange voice boomed. Naruto fumbled with his book and saw a tall man with a hitai-ite covering his left eye and wild, grey hair sticking up over his head.

Naruto gulped and stood up. "That's me," he replied.

"I am Kakashi Hatake. You have commissioned help learning to control your chakra. I will be here to help you every day after school for two hours until you complete the leaf exercise or the Hokage dismisses me," Kakashi said. He chose to wear a standard blue jonin suit with his jonin vest instead of his ANBU uniform.

"Great! Let's get started!" Naruto shouted as he grabbed a leaf. He made as little chakra as he could and used it to stick the leaf to his forehead.

"You stuck the leaf. Good job," Kakashi said as he turned to leave.

"Wait! You're supposed to tell me if I'm wasting chakra!" Naruto said.

"You are," Kakashi replied.

"Could you go into more detail? What am I doing wrong?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi sighed and turned around. "You are probably making the chakra too dense when you form it," he said. "So all you have to do is make it lighter. Go ahead."

Naruto tried forming chakra that was lighter, but was simply unable to form chakra at all. "I don't understand," Naruto said dejectedly.

Kakashi sighed again, sorely irritated at the inanity of this particular mission, and tried to think of how to explain it. "When you mix your physical and spiritual energy, it flows through your chakra circulatory system," Kakashi began.

"Huh?" Naruto replied.

"Your body has a circulatory system. It's how your blood gets from your heart to all of your other organs. It's like a bunch of pipes that carry blood and your heart is the pump that moves it around. You also have a chakra circulatory system only instead of blood it carries chakra. Do you understand?" Kakashi explained.

"I think so, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said.

"I'm not a sensei. Don't call me that," Kakashi harshly and instantly replied.

"Of course, Scarecrow-san," Naruto answered.

Kakashi closed his eye and centered his emotions before continuing. "When you create chakra, your core sends it throughout your chakra pathways. You then manipulate the chakra. You are not changing anything about how you create the chakra. You are changing how you manipulate the chakra," he explained.

"But what am I doing wrong?" Naruto whined.

"When you make chakra, it is concentrating in a tiny place in your core, which is making it dense. Stop concentrating it and it will be lighter. Then, you can use the lighter chakra and not waste as much," Kakashi explained as he resigned himself to taking this mission for the long term.

Naruto focused and practiced for the next hour with Kakashi having pulled up his headband and opened the sharingan (pinwheel eye) he had in the left socket until Kakashi noticed something strange.

"Naruto, you aren't making your chakra lighter," Kakashi interrupted, closing his left eye and letting his headband droop once more.

"But it feels lighter…" Naruto replied.

"You're straining your chakra pathways. They're getting slightly wider. You're still making the same density of chakra, but then you're inflating it within your chakra pathways instead of creating lighter chakra," he explained.

"Okay…" Naruto said.

"If you continue to abuse your chakra pathways like that, you could damage them," Kakashi explained.

"Could I expand them permanently?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi thought about it and then answered, "I'm not sure. I'm no medic. But that's not really within the scope of my mission parameters."

"What, exactly, are your mission parameters?" Naruto asked, suddenly struck by the thought.

"I am to give you feedback as you attempt to create and mold chakra until you complete the leaf exercise," Kakashi answered.

"For how long?" Naruto asked.

"Until you master the exercise to your satisfaction or the Hokage dismisses me," Kakashi replied.

"Let's get to work then. I will be the greatest leaf sticker in the history of Konohagakure!" Naruto shouted.

Kakashi sighed, lifted his hitai-ite, and opened his left eye again. "Go ahead," he said, clearly bored beyond reason.


	5. Chapter 4 -- Sasuke Uchiha

**Chapter 4**

Naruto stood in the sparring circle as the teaching assistant prepared to judge the match. Naruto took a fighting stance across from his opponent.

Kiba, a boy his age with shaggy brown hair, looked un-phased opposite Naruto.

"Begin!" the assistant shouted as he dropped a knife-hand between the two children and stepped back.

Naruto charged across the circle and telegraphed a wide punch. Kiba dropped on all fours and sprang into Naruto's middle with his shoulder, smashing into Naruto's stomach. Kiba stood up from his spear-like attack and released Naruto, sending Naruto flying across the circle onto the ground.

"Stop!" the assistant shouted. "Winner: Kiba."

Naruto stood up and made the hand sign to show no hard feelings. He hated losing, but denying it wouldn't make it any less real.

"My taijutsu sucks," Naruto groused outside the circle.

"Hn," the dark-haired boy next to Naruto replied.

"Oh, shut up Mister Perfect," Naruto said.

The dark-haired boy looked directly at Naruto and said, "When my brother was our age, he was already a chunin."

"How'd that work out for him?" Naruto asked.

"He's an ANBU captain now," the boy replied.

"That doesn't answer the question," Naruto retorted.

"Hn," the boy said, clearly ending the conversation.

Two months of training with Kakashi had helped Naruto improve with the leaf exercise. He could now make chakra and then expand that chakra he had made to be "less dense" and then divide it so that he had exactly the right amount to stick the leaf to his forehead. He would normally keep it stuck to his head throughout the day, but it always fell off when he was distracted. Like during spars. Or shuriken practice. Or if he got to a particularly exciting part of a book.

"All right, everyone. Good job today," the teaching assistant said. "Everyone has already sparred and that's all that the lesson plan had left, so why don't you go ahead and go home a few minutes early?"

Everyone cheered and began to rush home. Naruto picked up a leaf and stuck it to his forehead.

The teaching assistant was walking into the classroom, fully intent on grading papers and then going home early himself, but then Naruto arrived and he had a feeling the boy might have more questions.

"It looks like you've got the leaf exercise down, Naruto-kun," the teen said as the boy approached.

"Not really. Kakashi-san said that I form chakra 'strangely' but that I'm making it work. He said that if I want to work on something, I should practice keeping the leaf stuck to my forehead even while distracted," Naruto explained. "He made it sound like it was really difficult."

"Is it?" Iruka asked.

"It is the most annoying thing ever. 20 minutes is the longest I've been able to hold it," Naruto said.

"Oh. Well, I'm sure you'll get it if you keep at it," Iruka responded.

"Yeah. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something," Naruto said.

'Of course…' Iruka thought. "Ask away," Iruka said.

"What makes someone good at taijutsu?" Naruto asked.

"Practice," Iruka answered.

"But what do they practice? Do they just keep punching and kicking?" Naruto pressed.

"I'm not a taijutsu master, but I spent long hours punching and kicking so that my arms and legs will move correctly in the heat of combat," Iruka answered.

Naruto thought about it quietly and Iruka went back to grading papers. The leaf fell off Naruto's forehead, but he caught it and stuck it back on before it could float all the way to the ground.

"How did the first taijutsu masters figure out how to fight?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not sure. I guess they probably fought a lot and the winners passed on their techniques," Iruka answered.

"Huh," Naruto continued thinking. "So they just practiced fighting…"

"Naruto, you shouldn't go around fighting. It's dangerous," Iruka admonished. "You could get seriously hurt."

Naruto nodded absently as he walked out, deep in thought. He thought about what would happen if he got hurt.

'I've always healed super-fast,' Naruto thought. 'I wonder if that's normal…'

The words of his old friend echoed through his mind then: "How do you know that?"

"I'm going to test it," Naruto said aloud as he changed gears from an aimless meander to a dead sprint home.

Inside his apartment, Naruto took out a kunai and made a straight cut on the back of his forearm a few inches long. He then covered the wound with a paper towel and wrapped his arm with athletic tape. He wrote the time, date, location, and depth of the cut on the chalkboard he'd bought to keep track of things on his wall before continuing with his afternoon. His memory was not exactly the best.

The next morning, he checked the bandage to find that the cut was completely healed with no trace of a wound. He wrote it on the board and went to school where he read the book he'd checked out of the library. Since he didn't need Kakashi's help anymore, he had no reason to pay attention to anything boring and he considered almost every lecture at the Academy boring.

He continued his normal lunchtime ritual of visiting the Hokage, discussing the book he was reading, and then the Hokage brought up his schoolwork, which was obviously slacking again.

"Naruto-kun, you should really study harder," the Hokage said. "You will get much more out of the Academy."

Naruto looked at the Hokage as if the old man had grown a second head.

"Alright. Fine. But I really thought you were doing well at school," Hiruzen said. "Is there something else that's caught your attention?"

"My taijutsu is terrible. My shurikenjutsu is pretty bad, but I figure I know how to improve that," Naruto said.

"I'm sure that if you practice more you'll improve. Just make sure to practice correctly. If you practice the wrong movements, then you'll have bad habits to overcome later," the Hokage said.

"I know, Hokage-jiji. I'm thinking about something else though," Naruto said.

"What's that?" the Hokage asked.

"Iruka-sensei told me that if I practiced too much or certain things that I could get hurt and would have to take time to rest. I've never gotten so hurt so bad that I had to stop training and I wondered if that was normal," Naruto explained. "So I wanted to test it. How long does a cut usually take to heal?"

The Hokage looked at Naruto sternly and said, "You shouldn't cut yourself, Naruto."

"But I'm going to get cut eventually. We practice throwing kunai and shuriken all the time. Almost everyone in the class has cut themselves on accident," Naruto said. "I just want to know how long it takes to heal from a cut like that."

"Well then, as long as you aren't going to cut yourself," the Hokage said.

Naruto nodded solemnly. He didn't have to tell the Hokage that he'd already cut himself.

"It usually takes a few days to a few weeks, depending on how deep the cut goes. The deepest cuts take several weeks, while shallow cuts," he said as he pulled his had away from the stack of papers on his desk, "like paper cuts, usually take a day or two to heal."

"So a cut from a kunai…" Naruto tried to lead the Hokage.

"Would probably take anywhere from two to four days, if it was just from a normal handling accident. Of course, such a shallow cut wouldn't be much more than an annoyance on the battlefield," the Hokage explained.

"But it won't heal completely overnight," Naruto said.

"Not usually. It generally takes a few days for the skin to heal," the Hokage replied.

"Huh," Naruto said, returning to his inner thoughts. He walked toward the door, deep in thought, and said, "See you tomorrow, Jiji," as he walked out.

"See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun," the Hokage called after the boy.

Naruto pondered what it meant that he healed so quickly and decided to put it on the list he'd started. On one side of the list was a column header that read: "Things I'm Awesome At." The other side of the list had a column header that read: "Things I Suck At." One side had several sheets of paper stuck to the corkboard, while the other had a single sheet.

When Naruto returned home after school that day, a leaf still stuck to his forehead, he pulled the single sheet of paper he'd pinned to the awesome side down and wrote, "healing factor?" down. He put the lonely sheet back up on its ever-shrinking side and looked at the side that seemed to grow every time he learned about a new skill.

He put his hand on his chin and tapped his finger against his lip. "I have time free in the evenings to improve something," he said aloud as he carefully contemplated the board. "Something that isn't totally boring."

His eyes eventually came to the kanji he'd written for "ground speed." He nearly picked "flight," but decided against it since he didn't know the first place to begin with that.

The leaf fell off and floated to the ground. He picked it up and stuck it back on.

He grabbed a blank piece of paper out with a pencil, stuck his stopwatch in his pocket, and went out to the forest surrounding the village. He marked one of the first trees he saw with a kunai and set down the pencil on top of the paper. He then clicked the stopwatch and took off running as fast as he could go. He kept running until he got to the top of the hill and marked a tree after he clicked off the stopwatch.

He walked back to the first tree, took a drink of water from the nearby creek, wrote down his time, and then repeated the process, trying to keep the leaf stuck to his forehead the whole time.

The next day, he found that he was already just a few seconds faster.

On the third day, his dark-haired classmate was huddled next to the creek, sobbing.

"Hey, Mister Perfect. What the hell are you doing way out here?" Naruto asked.

The other boy turned away from Naruto, composed himself, and turned to face Naruto, all traces of tears gone. "I came here to be alone. I didn't know anyone ever came out here," he said.

"I just started coming out here. I decided to improve on some things," Naruto said.

"Hn. Like everything?" the boy asked with a smirk.

"Eventually," Naruto responded. "You don't have to be like that. I was going to invite you to join me."

"Doing what?" the boy asked.

"Sprinting. I've got a start tree and an end tree and a stopwatch. I practice until the sun sets and then I get dinner," Naruto explained.

"You'll lose," the boy replied.

"Maybe. But so what? I don't have to start out better than anyone, but if I keep practicing I'll get better," Naruto replied. "Whaddya say? Wanna join me?"

The dark-haired boy contemplated it for a minute before responding, "Sure. Why not."

The first six sprints, Naruto lost. Badly. The next two he tied. Naruto's times weren't improving as much as the other boy's times were slowing.

"How… are you… still… going…" the dark-haired boy gasped, hunched over.

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I recover on the walk back down," he said.

"Stamina… freak…" the dark-haired boy said.

Naruto shrugged again. "Yeah, but my times are improving," he said. "Ready to go again?"

The other boy huffed and puffed as he shook his head. "I'll skip… this one," he said.

Naruto took off alone while the dark-haired boy flopped onto his back. When Naruto returned, the other boy stood up.

"I'm ready," he said.

Naruto smiled, wrote down his time, and said, "Sure thing, Mister Perfect."

"Call me Sasuke," Sasuke said.

"Then you can call me Naruto," Naruto said. "Ready?" he asked, looking at Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded.

"Go!" Naruto shouted and they both shot off into the forest.

—0—

Both boys lay on the ground at the top of the hill as the sun lit the sky with orange and purple.

"So… what happened?" Naruto asked.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke replied.

"When I first came out here, you were…" Naruto trailed.

"Something bad. I don't want to talk about it," Sasuke said.

"Oh. Okay," Naruto replied.

They laid in silence watching the stars come out for a while until Sasuke spoke again.

"My brother killed everyone," Sasuke said.

"That sucks," Naruto replied.

"That's an understatement," Sasuke said, finding himself too tired to get angrier.

"Who do you mean by 'everyone'?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke started to tear up.

Naruto sat silently, looked away, and consciously ignored Sasuke's sobs while Sasuke tried to get himself under control.

"The whole clan," Sasuke finally said. "I'm the only one left."

Naruto quietly listened to Sasuke trying to control himself. He wasn't sure what to say.

"How do you do it?" Sasuke asked.

"Do what?"

"How do you keep going even though you suck at almost everything?" Sasuke asked.

"That's pretty harsh, Sasuke," Naruto said, a little hurt.

"You know what I mean," Sasuke said.

"Let me tell you about how I got into reading," Naruto said. "You see, before the Academy, I used to wander around the village a lot. I didn't read back then because I thought it was lame." Something clicked in Naruto as he explained it. 'I should really try to pay attention to the lectures at school. They seem lame, but so did reading before the Old Man gave me "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja."'

"Anyway, this old man challenged me to read a certain book. He owned a used bookstore. And then he challenged me to read another and another. By the time we were in the Academy, I was reading a new book every day instead of struggling through a book every three or four days," Naruto explained. "I sucked at reading. But now I don't."

"So you think you'll be able to improve everything?" Sasuke asked.

"Pretty much," Naruto said.

"You're delusional," Sasuke replied.

"Maybe. But every single thing I've worked on has improved. Two days ago, I was a full thirteen seconds slower than my best time today," Naruto said. "I haven't got any reason to give up without even trying."

"What if you fail?" Sasuke asked.

"Then I'll try again," Naruto answered.

"What if you can't?"

"Hasn't happened yet," Naruto replied.

"What if it does?"

"I'll find a way," Naruto answered.

"What if you can't?"

"Look: I'm not going to go around in circles. I'll never give up. Ever," Naruto said as he stood up and stretched his back. "I don't know about you, but I could go for some ramen."

Sasuke sat up and looked at Naruto. "It's starting to get a little cold. Ramen sounds pretty good, I guess," Sasuke said.

"Pretty good? Are you insane?! It's the best food ever!" Naruto shouted as they walked back to the village.

"It's pretty good, but that's pushing it," Sasuke answered as he stoically walked at a constant pace.

"Fine. Since you have insulted the glorious ramen, you're buying!" Naruto yelled as he began sprinting.

"Oh no I'm not! Separate checks, dammit!" Sasuke yelled as he too broke out into a run. "I've heard rumors about your ramen tabs! I'm not stupid!"


	6. Chapter 5 -- Hinata Hyūga

A/N: Before anyone flips their shit/jumps for joy, remember that this story is Friendship/Adventure and not Romance.

**Chapter 5**

Naruto stood across from the black-haired boy in the sparring circle. "You can't forfeit!" he shouted at the lazy boy. At nine years old, neither boy was particularly large. Naruto was slightly broader than most of his class, but was on the shorter end of the spectrum.

The black-haired boy shrugged.

"Iruka-sensei, he can't forfeit, can he?" Naruto asked the newly minted teacher.

"Ah… Well… That is… He can, actually," Iruka answered.

"What the hell?!" Naruto shouted.

The black-haired boy didn't take his hands out of his pockets when he turned and left the sparring circle.

"Come on, dammit! I'll never improve if I don't get to fight!" Naruto lamented as he walked out of the circle.

"Hn," Sasuke said as Naruto saddled up next to him. Sasuke had his arms crossed while he watched the spars.

"You should fight me," Naruto said as the next spar started.

"We fight," Sasuke said.

"In the circle. Like once a week," Naruto said.

"Hn."

"We barely hang out anymore since you stopped running with me," Naruto said.

"Because I'm busy," Sasuke said.

"Too busy to help me?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sasuke said.

"Doing what?"

"Training," Sasuke answered.

"Training what?"

"Various jutsus," Sasuke explained.

"Alone?"

"Hn."

"Seriously?"

"Hn."

"You're a bastard, ya know that?"

"Hn," Sasuke said with a hint of a smirk.

The two watched the rest of the matches in silence. When Naruto got to the area of forest that he used for training, he noticed signs that someone else had been in the area. He hadn't heard any security alerts, so he blew it off and started to warm up with sprints up and down the hill.

Once warmed up, he opened a scroll that he'd checked out of the library. This particular scroll contained detailed illustrations of the basics of all taijutsu: strikes and blocks. He studied the first strike and then meticulously executed it until he was sure he'd done it perfectly. His plan was to practice each one for a week. He was bored after three minutes.

"Okay. I can do this," Naruto said, trying to psych himself up. "I have to do this. It's time to learn taijutsu. Brawling my way through everything is just stupid."

He practiced again for less than two minutes before getting bored.

"AAAAAARRRRRRG!" he screamed in frustration and fell onto his back, not moving and closing his eyes.

After a minute of stillness from Naruto, a girl from his class burst out of the bushes and was rushing in his direction, so he did what any prospective shinobi would do: he flipped up to his feet, drew a kunai, and got into a defensive stance.

The girl had a short bob haircut and her pupil-less eyes made her look even more surprised when she skidded to a halt, let out an "eep!", and ran back into the forest.

"Wait!" Naruto called as he took off after her. He caught up to her quicker than he thought he would, but her response surprised him.

She dropped to her knees, put her arms in front of her head, and whimpered, "Please don't hurt me!"

"Why would I hurt you?" Naruto asked.

The girl had her head turned away and was obviously waiting for a blow to come.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Naruto said. "You just surprised me is all. I thought I was alone out here."

The girl let her arms down and looked at Naruto's feet when she answered, "Oh. I-I'm sorry. I'll go."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked, bewildered.

"I didn't mean to disturb you, Naruto-kun," she said as she stood. "I'll go."

"You don't have to go," Naruto said. "I mean, I was just working on basic taijutsu."

"But you're already so good at fighting," the girl said quietly.

Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. I'm okay. I get beat by Kiba two times out of three. And Sasuke wipes the floor with me every time. But I almost always beat everyone else. So what? I can't beat Sasuke and I rarely beat Kiba," he explained.

The girl started looking at the ground and fidgeting.

"You're from a big clan, right?" Naruto asked, deciding to break the silence.

The girl nodded.

"So you must be pretty good at taijutsu then, right?" he pressed.

She shrugged. "My cousin is much better than me," she said.

"Do you train?" he asked.

She fidgeted and looked like she was about to cry. "I do! My father trains me every day. But I'm still terrible," she said as she started to cry. "I'm going to be a failure."

"Of course you will!" Naruto said.

The girl's restrained tears turned into a flood.

Naruto waved his hands quickly. "No! I mean, that's not what I meant! I meant that failure is normal. Not everybody succeeds on the first try! You have to work at it and keep working at it!"

His explanation didn't seem to stop the girl from crying. Something deep inside Naruto wanted to do whatever it took to make the girl stop crying. Something deep inside told him that girls shouldn't cry. Something primal and basic in his heart would not allow it.

"Listen! You have to stop crying! You can't ever improve if you break down and cry every time you fail! I suck at almost everything, but I'm not crying about it. You can improve! If that's what's important to you and you work hard and you never give up, you can do it!" Naruto exclaimed.

The girl's tears throttled back from a torrential downpour to a light mist and she sniffled. "Do… Do you really think so?" she asked between sniffles.

Naruto put on the most serious expression he could muster and replied, "Of course. I know so."

The girl wiped her face on the sleeve of her jacket and stood up. "I'd really like to train with you," she said.

Naruto wasn't exactly sure what to do. He didn't have any friends who were girls. "Uh… Sure!" he said. "Umm… I don't usually pay attention to the girls sparring though. So I really don't know anything about how you fight."

"Oh…" the girl trailed.

"But maybe you could help me with the basics? You're from a big clan, so it's probably way too basic for you," he said.

"Do you think that it could help me get stronger?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it can't hurt, right?" he responded.

The girl didn't seem to think for very long before responding. "Okay. What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Well, practice the basic moves and tell me when I'm not doing it perfect," he explained.

She stood next to him and nodded in determination. Around her eyes, veins bulged as they began their practice. The two spent the hour of daylight remaining practicing in relative silence. Only the girl would speak up when Naruto wasn't performing the movement with perfect precision. She even called him out when she was looking in an entirely different direction, causing Naruto great surprise each time.

Naruto offered to buy her a bowl of ramen, his traditional after-training meal, as they walked back to the village, but she fidgeted and replied, "Ah… I have to go home for dinner, but I'd like to train more."

Naruto was a little disappointed, but decided that a training partner was better than training alone. Even if it was a girl he'd be training with. "Sure! I train out there every day after school," he told her.

Shortly after, she took a turn down a different street and Naruto went to get his ramen fix. When he met with the Hokage for lunch the next day, Naruto was bouncing with excitement.

"Hey, Hokage-jiji! I found a new training partner!" he exclaimed as he burst into the office.

"I was disappointed when Sasuke-kun decided he would no longer be training with you," the Hokage said. "Who is this person with whom you've started training?"

Naruto paled slightly as he realized one important fact: he had no idea what the girl's name was. "Well… You see… Ummm…" he stammered.

Hiruzen nodded, knowingly. "You don't know his name," he said, skewering the source of Naruto's embarrassment.

Naruto nodded. "But she's a girl, not a boy," Naruto said. "She said she wanted to get stronger and she seemed really sad about being weak. I've never paid much attention to the girls, so I have no idea if that's true. But she agreed to train with me!"

"Maybe I can help you out," Hiruzen said with a puff of his pipe.

"How?" Naruto asked.

"I'm familiar with most people in the village. I'm very old, you know," Hiruzen said. "So I've had time to meet a great many of them."

"Oh. Well she's from a big clan. With the weird eyes," Naruto explained.

"Ah. I know exactly who she is," Hiruzen said.

"Well? Tell me!" Naruto exploded.

"Hmmm…" Hiruzen said before he smiled mischievously. "Nope."

"But why?" Naruto whined.

"Because I'm old and it amuses me. I'm sure you'll figure it out without my help," Hiruzen said. "Maybe you'll read a history book instead of another fantasy story."

"But history books are so _boring_!" Naruto whined.

Hiruzen shrugged. "Surely a mystery such as this warrants investigating a boring topic," he said.

Naruto hung his head and shuffled his feet as he walked toward the door. "I understand, Hokage-jiji," he said. "You hate me."

Hiruzen watched the boy leave and harrumphed. "I'll see you tomorrow at lunch then, Naruto-kun?" he stated.

Naruto waved, continuing his overly dramatic exit, and said, "Yeah. Sure."

"I'm still not going to tell you. Hurry up if you're going to the library. You don't want to be late back to class," Hiruzen called.

Naruto cursed inwardly, but picked up his pace and went to the library. He entered the unremarkable building and walked right up to the scary librarian lady.

"Ummm… Excuse me?" he said, hoping simultaneously to get the woman's attention and that she'd ignore him.

The woman turned to him and shushed harshly. Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin and started sweating under the woman's glare.

"I'm looking for village history," Naruto whispered.

"Aisle seven," the only-scary-to-a-ten-year-old lady whispered.

Naruto moved to the aisle and found the book he was looking for, managing to check it out without further upsetting the librarian. If he hadn't started reading before the Hokage showed him the building, he was sure that the scary librarian lady would have deterred him from ever trying.

He managed to make it back to his classroom before he was late and took a seat in the back. Normally, he would just sit wherever the wind guided him, but on this occasion, he wanted to avoid notice. As the teacher lectured, Naruto opened the book and began reading it. He knew it would be boring, but he kept at it.

The teacher noticed and sighed. "NARUTO!" the teacher shouted. "PAY ATTENTION!"

Naruto looked down and saw that the topic was kunai velocity and trajectory. He feigned interest in the topic for as long as his short attention span could manage, but got back to reading his book before long.

By the time the day ended, Naruto had figured out that the girl was from the Hyūga clan. He'd also learned quite a bit about how Hashirama Senju had recruited a bunch of clans to form the village in the first place, but that was incidental to finding out the girl's name before he met with her again. He left the classroom with the rest of his class only to double back and sneak into the classroom.

Nobody noticed him break into the teacher's desk and check the clipboard. Nobody paid much attention to orphans and his stealth skills were top notch from the few times he'd angered random strangers. For some reason, some adults were prone to violence. He'd noticed a few adults throwing things, breaking things, and generally acting violently on occasion, so he tried to avoid that sort of attention.

Naruto figured that while he was in the classroom unsupervised, he might as well have some fun. He rigged a small paint bomb into the chair, finally snickering openly once he'd cleared the Academy and was on his way to his afternoon training.

He arrived at his normal spot to the sight of the girl, Hinata, hunched over against a tree. She turned to look directly at him as he arrived, the veins around her eyes already bulging.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said. "Are you okay? Why are you late?"

Naruto waved and replied, "I had to stop off somewhere real quick. But I'm ready to start warming up."

"Oh. Okay," Hinata replied.

When Hinata didn't follow Naruto, he stopped and ran back.

"Are you coming, Hinata-chan, or do you want to just wait around forever?" he asked.

Hinata blushed, secretly happy that he knew her name, but started to run after Naruto up the hill. She promised herself that she wouldn't quit or cry ever again.


	7. Chapter 6 -- Team 7

**Chapter 6**

Naruto had been the very last to take the genin test and everyone else, pass or fail, had gone home for the day. Sometimes, being an orphan had serious drawbacks, but his plan for the night made them advantages. Now that he was a genin, he had questions that needed answers.

He patiently waited for the cover of night to begin Operation Uzumaki. He'd been planning it for more than two years, ever since he'd read about Hashirama Senju being married to a woman named Mito Uzumaki. He never would have found out about it if he hadn't been forced to read about the founding of the village in order to discover Hinata's name.

He put on his orange jumpsuit and prepared himself. He had always been adept at going unnoticed, but it took him a while to realize that he had a natural talent for stealth. The day he'd added it to the "Things I'm Awesome At" side of his board had been particularly gratifying for him. He refused to attempt Operation Uzumaki in anything less than his favorite clothes.

He used camouflage cloth bolts to avoid notice when he couldn't remain in the shadows. He saw the lights on in the Hokage's office and knew that the Hokage was working late that night. But he was after a different target. Operation Uzumaki required looking into the records department in the basement of the Hokage tower.

He snuck through the darkened halls, making absolutely no noise. The door to the records vault was more difficult to bypass. He took out his lock picks and the spray lubricant he needed to make the lock easier to operate. A quick spray into the keyhole and his pick began the delicate work of pushing the tumblers into position while his other hand pressed gently on the tension rod.

Once all of the tumblers were in position, the tension rod slowly turned, unlatching the door. Naruto closed and locked the door behind him before moving carefully to the file cabinet he sought. He opened the drawers and shuffled quietly through the papers until he found "Uzumaki" files.

The first several were duds, being shinobi that had worked temporarily with Konoha more than fifty years prior. The file for Mito Uzumaki listed her as deceased much later than he would have thought, but most of the file was empty, leaving him to question whether this room was the one he wanted. But then he found it.

Kushina Uzumaki. Born in Uzushiogakure (Village Hidden in Whirling Tides), she had permanently emigrated to Konohagakure (Village Hidden in Leaves) for reasons not listed. This file was also suspiciously thin, but the date of her death was listed as the night Naruto was born. She had ostensibly retired from active duty with the end of the Third Shinobi World War. She was the only Uzumaki listed in the village at the time of Naruto's birth. It had to be her.

Out of curiosity, he pulled his own file. He expected things like reports from the Academy and his teachers. He did not expect to find a file so slim.

'How do you know that?' an old man's voice echoed in his mind. Naruto idly wondered why he thought his record would be thicker.

Then it hit him: the file room in the basement was the file room that was _supposed_ to be infiltrated. It held only information publicly available. Either the information that was classified was kept elsewhere or it wasn't recorded at all. But these files were incredibly incomplete, so there must be other copies that were complete. There had to be another file room.

He didn't care about most village secrets. He just wanted to know about his parents. Everyone in the village treated orphans like they were nothing, but every orphan had one other thing in common: they all wanted to know where they came from.

He had a name now. He hoped that she was his mother. Her file was so thin. He couldn't be absolutely sure, but it was the only lead he'd ever had. She had a ninja registration card in her file with "DECEASED" stamped across it. Naruto decided to take the card. She was almost certainly his mother, but he couldn't ask anyone. Not yet, anyway.

He slipped out of the basement, securing the door as he left, and skulked back to his apartment. The first phase of Operation Uzumaki was a success.

—0—

"He is not his father," Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he and Kakashi Hatake sat on a park bench, watching children play.

"That much was obvious when I had that D-rank to help him with chakra," Kakashi replied. He let the silence linger before speaking again. "This team is…"

"Dysfunctional?" the Hokage finished. "Of course it is. They're children. If they were professionals, adults then I would never put this team together."

Kakashi silently mulled over the new information. "So you mean for the two boys to hate each other?" he finally asked.

The Hokage watched two different boys racing along a path. A girl cheered for the boy in the lead and the trailing boy pushed himself even harder.

"There are two kinds of parents, Kakashi-kun: mothers and fathers. Fathers teach their children strength. Mothers teach their children kindness. Without either lesson, the other is harmful," the Hokage said. "Look at how that boy pushes himself. Do you think Obito would have been able to survive the war as long as he had if he hadn't been trying to catch you?"

Kakashi thought it over carefully before responding. "So this team is designed to make them all strong? And I'm meant to be their 'father'?"

The Hokage chuckled. "Not quite. I think you've taken the analogy too far, Kakashi-kun. The team dynamic is dysfunctional, but it is a specific type of dysfunction that will drive them to become legends," he explained. "One boy who isn't very good at anything. Another boy who excels at everything. And a girl who has great potential, if only she could realize it."

Kakashi frowned, not that anyone could see it with his mask covering the lower portion of his face.

"The Sanin were like that, in the beginning. Your team was like that too, Kakashi-kun," the Hokage continued. "The fool will train harder to catch the genius and impress the girl. The genius will train harder to maintain his superiority over the fool. And the girl will train harder so that her crush will notice her. That conflict will drive all of them. At least, that's the idea. 'No plan survives first contact with an enemy,' you know."

Kakashi grunted and watched the children playing in the park.

"Of course, you may test them however you wish. But you should know that Minato always had faith in you. He knew that you would come around eventually," the old man said.

"What?" Kakashi asked, wondering if the Hokage's comment meant what he thought it meant.

"He was an elite jonin: he noticed. He just chose to ignore it. He chose to put his faith in you, that you would eventually understand the full meaning of the bell test," the Hokage explained. "And I chose to have faith in him."

Kakashi leaned back casually in the bench. "You won't consider changing the teams?" he idly asked.

"No," the Hokage answered. "The boys need you and it's the best environment for the girl."

Kakashi sighed. Minato-sensei had known that he had used his teammates and gotten a bell, but the man had passed him anyway. He now wondered if that was such a wise decision, given what happened later. Kakashi still felt that he had failed everyone.

—0—

"Naruto!" the pink-haired girl screeched. "Don't be an idiot!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto. "As if a jonin would fall for such a simple prank," he muttered.

Naruto jammed the chalkboard eraser in the sliding door anyway. Simple was usually best.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall. A hand reached into the opening of the door and slid it along the track. The eraser fell directly on the tall man's head, puffing a chalk cloud around his grey hair.

"I tried to stop him, sensei!" Sakura yelled.

Sasuke turned away.

Naruto laughed and pointed.

"My first impression of you is… I don't like you," the man said, his single visible eye narrowed in irritation.

He gave a wave that obviously meant, "Follow me," and led them up to one of the many rooftop roosts in the village. The three genin sat down while Kakashi studied them.

"Why don't we start off with introductions?" he said. "Tell us your likes, dislikes, and dreams, if you have any."

"How about you go first and show us how it's done?" Naruto replied.

Kakashi looked at the boy he hadn't seen in years and answered. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I like many things and dislike some things. As for my dreams… I don't really have any."

"All he told us was his name…" Naruto muttered.

Kakashi pointed at him. "You next," the man said.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen, but Ichiraku Ramen is the best, especially when someone else treats me. I dislike the three minutes it takes instant ramen to cook. And my dream for the future is to be Hokage!"

One blushing, cringe-inducing introduction by Sakura Haruno later and Sasuke spoke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have few likes and many dislikes. I don't have a dream, but an ambition: to restore my clan and kill a certain man."

Kakashi looked at the trio critically and explained that they would have a survival test at 5 AM the next morning that would determine which, if any, of the genin would remain on his team. Before leaving the trio to their own devices, he made sure to mention that they would only puke if they ate breakfast.

"So… You guys wanna break into the records room and figure out what's up with Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

Sakura looked at him with horror in her eyes. "That's not allowed!" she exclaimed.

Naruto looked at Sasuke who responded with the slightest of shrugs.

"Alright! The Bastard's in! Come on, Sakura. It's really not that hard," Naruto said.

"But we're not supposed to!" Sakura countered.

"If we aren't supposed to, then why is it so easy?" Naruto asked.

"What?!" Sakura screamed.

"It's easy. I did it last night," Naruto replied.

"Hn," Sasuke stated.

"I didn't find _everything_ I was looking for, but I found enough," Naruto answered, pretending he could decode the other boy's grunts.

"Sasuke, are you _really_ going to do this?" Sakura asked.

"You'll only slow us down," Sasuke said.

"Naruto is the one who'll get you caught!" Sakura exclaimed. She could tell that the boys had their minds made up. "I'm coming," she said with a sigh of finality.

Naruto beamed.

—0—

Kakashi watched his new team from a tree not far away. If they had split up, then he wouldn't have bothered, but the young genin went to Naruto's apartment where the boy outlined a plan to break into the records room. It was the public records room, of course, but it was a bold strategy nonetheless.

Kakashi created a shadow clone, letting it run the errand he had in mind, and continued watching his potential students. They went over the building layout and the guard patrols for several hours, even going so far as to have the different types of camouflage tarp for each of the three so that they could pass through the building more easily.

Kakashi was amused as his shadow clone dispelled, returning the memory of its successful mission.

He watched his new charges as they snuck into the Hokage tower, flitted through the halls, opened the records room door, and began rifling through files.

—0—

Naruto pulled out a file and gave his two comrades a, "psst," and a wave. He'd found the Hatake files.

Naruto held Kakashi's file open on top of the drawer as Sakura read over one shoulder and Sasuke read over the other. The file was larger than Naruto thought it ought to be, considering the size of the other files he'd seen, but he didn't give it too much thought. As they read, Naruto was more and more amazed. Right up until he recognized the plot of one of those Icha Icha novels. Then he thought about the rest of what he'd read and realized that they too were the plots of novels.

"Dammit," Naruto whispered.

"What?" Kakashi whispered from behind all three genin.

Sakura screamed.

Sasuke screamed and drew a kunai, spinning to face the source of his surprise.

Naruto screamed, spun to face Kakashi, and dropped the file on the ground.

Kakashi looked at the trio with his darkest, angriest expression. "What are you doing in here?!" he thundered.

"It was that idiot Naruto's idea!" Sakura yelled.

"Is that so?" Kakashi asked with menace dripping from his voice.

Sasuke glared at Sakura. Naruto looked up at Kakashi defiantly. Sakura looked at the ground.

"You've broken the rules, Naruto. Don't bother showing up for the test tomorrow," Kakashi said.

Sasuke clenched his hands into fists. "Wait," he said. "We all broke the rules. If Naruto has to go back to the Academy, then we all should."

Sakura held her arm and felt no small amount of shame for throwing Naruto under the bus. "We all broke in. We should all be punished," she echoed.

Kakashi looked at the three of them. "Okay. Back to the Academy you'll go," he said with a stern expression. Which was quite a feat since the only part of his face showing was his right eye.

"No! Look: it was my idea. I convinced them to come along. If anyone is going to get in trouble, it should be me," Naruto said.

Sakura looked at Naruto and then resolutely looked at Kakashi. "No. It's my fault. I should have stopped you before it got this far," Sakura said. "You two have important things you want to do. You should have the chance to train under Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto shook his head and said, "I don't need to train under Kakashi-sensei to become the greatest Hokage. It was my idea. Just let me go back to the Academy."

"I'm not letting you take the fall for us," Sasuke said.

"You boys are being stupid," Sakura said.

"Fine. Whatever. We'll _all_ go back to the Academy than," Naruto harrumphed.

"Is that so?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke nodded.

Sakura nodded.

Naruto nodded.

"In that case… You all pass," Kakashi said with a smile, causing three confused expressions to appear before him. He let the three stew before explaining. "In the world of shinobi, those who don't follow the rules are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. Tomorrow was going to be a test of teamwork, but that won't be necessary anymore."

All three genin were stunned until Naruto pointed a finger at Kakashi accusingly. "YOU FAKED YOUR FILE!" he yelled.

Kakashi shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"We should all fake our files like Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said causing Kakashi to stop and widen his eye.

Sakura furrowed her brow as she looked at Naruto, but she connected the dots as well. Sasuke had an evil smirk.

"Let's go, Team 7," Kakashi said, stopping his genin from continuing their evil schemes. "If anyone else catches you in here, you really will be in trouble."

Naruto smiled.

Sakura smiled.

Sasuke smirked.

Team 7 was formed.


	8. Chapter 7 -- Sakura Haruno

A/N: I went on vacation for a week. It was pleasant. I wrote a little extra in this chapter because I was gone. I didn't know how else to do a Sakura chapter since the canon character is a selfish, anachronistic, violent, emotionally and psychologically unstable, lovesick psychopath, if taken literally, or a caricature that enforces Japanese cultural norms in hyper-violent, cartoon-esque style. I like neither and don't think that the written word is appropriate for the latter, so I tried humanizing her character.

**Chapter 7**

Sakura sat atop a tree in the small, wooded campsite that Team 7 had chosen for the night. Her pink hair barely moved in the mild breeze. Naruto and Sasuke had begged, whined, cajoled, blackmailed, extorted, threatened, and used a host of other unsavory tactics on Kakashi-sensei to get the man to teach them something while they were on the road. The mission they had taken was to locate a noble in the Land of Waves, which was several days away from Konohagakure, and find out information about some bridge builder. On the third day of travel, Kakashi had finally relented and showed them all tree-walking.

Sakura watched as Naruto and Sasuke ran up the trees and marked their progress. She had gotten the exercise on the first try and was watching from the boys work at it. No matter what Naruto did, Sasuke treated him better than her and that bothered Sakura. She had been top kunoichi at the Academy. That should have earned her something.

She watched Sasuke mark a spot higher on the tree and flip down, gracefully. Describing their competitions as "fierce" was an understatement, but she didn't dare call either of the boys out on it. But she could tell that Sasuke _respected_ Naruto and not her.

What surprised her most about their team, however, was that Naruto didn't stop. She thought that he would just give up when something got difficult, but she watched him keep pushing anyway. Sasuke, she was learning, would keep going on those occasions when he wasn't perfect at something right off the bat too. Sasuke was a genius though, so it was obvious that he would succeed. But no matter what happened, the boys would spur each other on. Only Naruto ever encouraged her though.

She watched Naruto fall. He attempted to flip and land on his feet, but only managed to land face-first instead. She sighed.

Their first team evaluation had been a revelation. She remembered thinking that Naruto was a bad student at the Academy, but watching Naruto fight Kakashi had quickly disabused her of the notion that the Academy had anything to do with combat prowess. He was on par with Sasuke, who was the Rookie of the Year. She had fallen to a simple genjutsu and was utterly useless in that fight.

She couldn't help thinking that she was the weak link after the evaluation. She had convinced herself that if Kakashi thought she was weak, he would surely have trained her. And then she had been so excited for Kakashi to teach them something beyond teamwork, but tree-walking was already boring.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura called to her lazy jonin-sensei. The man was reading that deplorable erotic novel.

"Hm?" Kakashi responded, not even looking over his book.

"I've finished the exercise."

"Great job, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered before returning to his own tree.

"Hn," Sasuke uttered with a glance in her direction.

"Sasuke says you're making great progress!" Naruto said upon hearing Sasuke's grunt.

Sasuke turned away and was obviously annoyed, but continued the exercise.

Kakashi continued reading his book.

"What's the next exercise, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"We can discuss that when Sasuke and Naruto finish this one," Kakashi said as he turned a page in his book.

Sakura sighed and walked back down the tree. Kakashi wouldn't give in. She sat down next to Kakashi and watched the boys practice for an hour before Kakashi told them to call it quits and go to sleep.

Before Naruto went to bed, however, he asked Kakashi-sensei a question that haunted Sakura's dreams that night.

"Kakashi-sensei: how come you didn't teach us anything until Sakura-chan asked?"

Sakura thought about it and realized that Kakashi-sensei had found some way to blow off both her teammates until she had asked Kakashi-sensei to show them something. Of course, it had been to shut the boys up because she was sick of hearing the racket, but that wasn't the point.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi responded.

"Sasuke and I have been asking you to teach us something for days. But as soon as Sakura asked, you showed us this tree-walking thing," Naruto said.

"Huh. That's not how I remember it," Kakashi answered, his single eye looking up as if searching his memory.

Sakura looked over to Sasuke just in time to see his eyes narrowed hatefully at her.

"But that's what happened!" Naruto yelled.

"I think you're confused," Kakashi said with a smile. She could tell because his right eye crinkled at the edges. Sakura was constantly amazed by how much the man could express with just one eye.

Naruto now looked confused and rushed over to Sasuke and the two began a hushed conversation.

"Sasuke! Naruto! Go to sleep! We have an early morning!" Kakashi ordered.

The two boys grumbled and got into their sleeping bags. Sakura was already in one of her own.

—0—

The daimyo of the Land of Waves had been little more than a puppet. A businessman by the name of Gato was obviously pulling the strings. A bridge would open a route that stood to break Gato's monopoly on trade with the Land of Waves. Sakura wasn't sure exactly how they'd discovered all of that, but Kakashi-sensei had asked each of the team to go forage for information and then put it all together with whatever he'd discovered.

Apparently, the bridge builder had hired Konoha-nins to escort him back to the Land of Waves and protect him from bandits while he finished building the bridge that could break Gato's monopoly. On the way, however, one of the chunin that the Hokage had assigned to the mission had been wounded and the bridge-builder had been poisoned, forcing the chunin team to retreat to Konohagakure for medical attention. The bridge builder was still suffering the effects of being poisoned and couldn't be questioned, so the Hokage had ordered Team 7 to the Land of Waves.

They were now on their way back to Konohagakure to deliver the information they'd gathered. Sakura watched Naruto play with the tree-walking exercise. He was increasing the amount of chakra in his feet to launch himself off the tree trunks on purpose, now that he'd mastered the exercise.

Sakura watched a white hare rush out of the undergrowth below Naruto before she heard a whirring noise and a massive sword embedded itself halfway up the large tree just ahead of them.

Sakura was shocked and frozen, barely noticing that Kakashi no longer had that infernal book of his out.

A muscular man wearing cargo pants and bandages around his face was suddenly standing atop the massive sword. He'd moved too fast for Sakura to track.

"Kakashi of the pinwheel eye," the man intoned.

"Zabuza Momochi," Kakashi replied.

"And a team of… liabilities," Zabuza said. "Let's see if you live up to the hype, eh?"

The area suddenly filled with mist and a wave of panic washed over Sakura. She couldn't see Sasuke or Naruto, but she felt like they were behind her in the basic defensive formation. She hoped they were, anyway.

"Don't worry," wafted Kakashi's disembodied voice. "I won't let any of my comrades die. I promise."

"Are you sure about that?" Zabuza's disembodied voice warbled.

Sakura heard some splashes and wondered what was going on, but stood firm. It felt as if she would definitely die, but Kakashi promised and she had to trust in her sensei.

Naruto suddenly shouted, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" And the area heated up considerably, which dissipated some of the mist for a few seconds. Sakura could see Naruto and Sasuke at her back. Sasuke was holding the final hand sign for his katon (fire release) technique. He looked like a dragon as flames continued shooting out of his mouth in a stream. She couldn't deny the mild blush she felt watching him.

Kakashi appeared in the opening. "You need to get out of the mist," he said. He had his hitai-ate raised and his left eye was red with a strange wheel shape surrounding the iris. Sakura had never seen that side of his face and noted the scar crossing his eye socket.

Before they could react, Zabuza appeared and slashed his behemoth sword through Kakashi. Kakashi splashed, becoming a puddle of water and another Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai to Zabuza's throat.

Zabuza then dissolved into a puddle of water and Kakashi disappeared back into the mist as the mist swept them all back up.

Sakura heard more splashes and a few roars, but both Sasuke and Naruto were touching her feet with theirs, so she knew that the boys had her back. She heard Kakashi's voice and Zabuza's voice as well, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

And then she heard a strange sound, like a thousand birds chirping. The mist cleared and Kakashi's hitai-ate covered his left eye once more. Zabuza lay on the ground with an arm-sized hole in his chest and Kakashi had blood on his arm.

"That took a little more out of me than I thought," Kakashi said as he collapsed onto the ground.

"ZABUZA-SAMA!" a voice screamed from the trees. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Naruto and Sasuke leapt in front of Kakashi's downed form and blocked what appeared to be storm of senbons. Sakura leapt after the boys and took up a position at Kakashi's side.

The water from the mist coalesced into several mirrors and a mask-wearing ninja appeared in all of them. Senbon began to flow from the mirrors at a pace that Sakura couldn't keep. It was little comfort after what seemed like an eternity to see that Sasuke and Naruto also looked like porcupines.

Naruto blocked as best he could while Sasuke sped through the hand signs for his fireball technique. Sakura did her best to block Sasuke's other side, taking more senbons in the process, so that he could melt the ice with his fire jutsu. The fireball rose toward one of the mirrors and sprayed against it for long seconds, but when it died down the mirror remained unscathed.

As the barrage of senbon continued, Sakura noticed that Sasuke was speeding up. Something was happening to him to make him faster. But Naruto was covered in needles and dropping fast. Sakura knew that she wasn't too far behind Naruto.

She was starting to panic. She didn't want to die! Not yet!

A new barrage of senbons flew out of the mirrors, but most of them were focused on Sasuke. It seemed like his new speed wasn't up to the task of deflecting quite that many senbons and a few struck him in the neck. He went suddenly still and dropped to the ground.

"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed. Covered in senbon, Sakura watched as her blond teammate stood up, turning to face one of the mirrors, and began to exude visible, red chakra. "YOU'RE **DEAD**."

Sakura could feel the red chakra from a few feet away. She was so full of senbons that moving was an arduous task, but she began to extract the most debilitating of the needles while Naruto's red chakra seemed to press the needles in his body slowly out.

A furious flurry of senbons flew at Naruto, but that red chakra repelled them and pressed the last of the previously stuck needles out. For a moment, Sakura thought that she could make out the shape of a fox head in the chakra, but discounted it as a hallucination. Naruto jumped at the mirrors, punching one so hard that it cracked, and their mystery assailant flew out the back of the mirror.

Naruto grabbed the cracks in the now broken ice mirror and followed the masked ninja's trajectory with a heavy kick to the back of the broken ice mirror. Sakura couldn't quite follow everything that was happening, she was focused on making it to Sasuke, but she felt the thuds reverberating through the ground just before the dome of ice mirrors melted away.

Naruto was straddled over a boy slightly older than Sakura, his fist cocked back but halted and that strange red aura of chakra receding. Sakura could see the strange boy's face bleeding from where Naruto had cracked what appeared to be a porcelain mask. She could see both of their lips moving as they spoke to each other, but they were too far away for her to hear them.

Naruto stood up and staggered several feet away from the other boy. The other boy screamed, "KILL ME!"

When Naruto didn't move after an eternity, the other boy reached around for one of the kunai that littered the area from Kakashi's battle with the swordsman.

"Watch out!" Sakura screamed as the boy on the ground found a weapon.

Naruto spun and the look of horror on Naruto's face when the boy on the ground plunged the kunai into his own neck was soon surpassed as the first spurt of arterial blood sprayed across Naruto's body.

Sakura staggered up and watched as Naruto dropped down and frantically began trying to cover the other boy's wound with his bare hands. The spray only lasted a few spurts though and Naruto looked panicked.

Sakura, still feeling numb, began slowly pulling the needle-like weapons out of Sasuke's body. Naruto stumbled over to Sakura and knelt down next to her, gently removing needles from Sasuke as well. Sakura ignored Naruto muttering, "I won't cry," every few needles.

When Sasuke coughed up some blood, but sat up suddenly, Sakura burst into tears. Naruto stood up and said, "I'm sorry."

Sakura couldn't remember everything that happened after that, but they removed the strange senbons and moved Kakashi and the two missing-nins to a spot off the road. They made camp and waited for Kakashi to wake up. Sasuke and Naruto had argued over whether to wait or try to carry their sensei, but the difficulty the three of them had had just getting him to the side of the road had settled it for Sakura.

The boys let her "break the tie" and she opted for waiting until morning to continue their mission. Naruto stared at the campfire and Sakura sat down next to him.

"I couldn't do it," Naruto said. Sakura had never seen anything faze Naruto. It was strange to see him in shock.

"I saw," Sakura replied.

"You don't understand."

"I'm pretty smart. Explain it," Sakura encouraged.

"I hated him more than I've ever hated anyone or anything in my life. But he was a boy I befriended back in Waves. When he started talking about how he was useless and broken and he couldn't even take revenge properly, I…"

Sakura waited patiently.

"That weird sword guy was precious to him and Kakashi killed him. I thought he killed Sasuke and I wanted to kill him. But when it came time to strike the killing blow, something held me back," Naruto explained.

"Maybe you knew that Sasuke wasn't really dead?" Sakura asked, lying to make her teammate feel better.

"Maybe," he trailed. "He was ready to die though. What if I couldn't kill him because I wanted him to suffer?"

Sakura hadn't given it that much thought. "Would that have been worse than killing him?" she asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Nobody knows for sure what happens when we die."

Sakura thought about it for a while before responding and Naruto kept staring into the fire. Finally, Sakura said, "Letting him live would have made him suffer, but he could have found something else to do or someone else to value."

"So you think I was weak?" Naruto asked, still not turning from the fire.

"I saw you beat the crap out of him. That was the most amazing fight I've ever seen and you won," Sakura said, avoiding the subject.

"But I couldn't kill him," Naruto responded when Sakura didn't continue.

"I don't know," Sakura said. "You were certainly strong enough to kill him. But when you had him beaten and helpless, you couldn't finish him off. There's something noble about that."

As she said it, she realized that it was true: there _was_ something noble about Naruto not killing the boy. When Sasuke had said that his ambition was to kill a certain man, Sakura had thought that he was _so cool_. But Naruto had severely beaten their attacker, someone whom Sakura couldn't help hating when she thought Sasuke was dead. But Naruto hadn't killed him and that somehow made Naruto seem _better_.

"D'you really think I was noble?" Naruto asked with a hopeful expression in his eyes.

"There was something noble about not killing him. I didn't say it made _you_ noble," Sakura replied, still reeling from the sudden shift she'd just made in her view of Naruto. "But I think it does make you special."

Naruto smiled at Sakura then and Sakura couldn't help but smile back. But thinking about the fight, Sakura's smile went from happy to rueful.

"I'm a little jealous of you right now," Sakura admitted.

"What? Why?" Naruto panicked.

"I'm the weak one," Sakura said. "I couldn't keep up with either of you. That missing-nin didn't even bother throwing much at me until he realized that you two were blocking some of the senbons he threw at me. He used me to make you work harder. I dragged you both down."

Naruto frowned. "That isn't fair, Sakura-chan. Haku was super-fast. Nobody could keep up with him."

"Sasuke was keeping up just before he went down."

"If that were true, then he wouldn't have gone down," Naruto retorted.

"He was the biggest threat at the time, Naruto. That missing-nin knew that the two of us wouldn't be able to protect Kakashi-sensei so he focused on Sasuke-kun."

Naruto looked quietly at the fire for some time after that. He told Sakura to get some sleep, which she did.

Sakura woke up to Naruto shaking her in the middle of the night. "Sakura-chan," he whispered.

"Guh…"

"Sakura-chan, it's your turn to take watch," Naruto whispered.

Sakura groggily rolled over and sat up. She looked up at Naruto in the light of the dying fire. He looked dirty, but none the worse for wear. She felt like someone had dropped her in front of a moving train.

She nodded and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Naruto waited until she looked like she was awake and then said, "Do you really want to be a homemaker?"

"What?"

"When we introduced ourselves to Kakashi-sensei, you implied that you wanted to be a homemaker. Is that what you want?"

Sakura looked at Naruto. She hadn't really thought that was what she implied. She just had a crush on Sasuke and that was it.

"That's fine if you do, but I just don't understand, I guess."

Sakura's first instinct was to yell, but they were trying to keep a low profile. They didn't know if there were other shinobi around that could attack and Sakura managed to reign herself in.

"What's wrong with being a homemaker?" Sakura pressed.

Naruto stuck his arms in front of his body and said, "Nothing! I didn't mean to say that there was anything wrong with it! I just wondered why. I'm curious."

Sakura scowled at Naruto. "I don't know. My mom is a homemaker and she's happy."

"Oh. Okay."

Sakura continued to scowl as she thought about it. She had entered the Academy because she wanted to be strong like Ino. Sakura hadn't thought about it before, but she realized that she enjoyed being strong and independent. She thought about how she had to take care of Kakashi and Sasuke when they were wounded and realized that she hadn't really enjoyed it.

As she watched and listened for potential danger throughout the night, Sakura realized that she didn't actually want to be a homemaker. She thought about her mother's life: the daily routine of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the family. She thought about being picked on when she was younger and being saved by Ino.

By the time the sun started to rise, Sakura realized that her dream wasn't to take care of Sasuke as her mother took care of her father. She realized that she wanted to be strong and independent, like the heroines in stories. She didn't want to have to rely on other people to protect her. Even the village, her home, could be a dangerous place and she had needed Ino to protect her when they were both younger. But Sasuke was hot too. She realized that that last thought had interfered with what she truly wanted for a long time.

Naruto rolled over and started to snore. Sasuke slowly sat up. He turned away from her and rubbed his eyes. "I have to relieve myself," Sasuke said when he finally stood. "I'll be about ten meters," he pointed, "that way."

Sasuke walked into the bushes and Sakura watched him. He'd done everything by the book: sleeping, relieving himself in the morning, and everything else for the whole mission. He was already a damned good shinobi.

When Sasuke turned around and started walking back, Sakura pulled out ration bars. She didn't know how to cook, a fact that she currently regretted. Sasuke grabbed two and threw one at Naruto, who was still snoring loudly. The bar bounced off Naruto's chest and his arm slapped down onto it, but Naruto remained soundly asleep.

Sasuke sat in front of the embers of the fire and started eating the other ration bar.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke ignored her.

"Do you think I'd make a good kunoichi?"

Sasuke finished chewing a bite of his ration bar and swallowed. "You aren't one."

Sakura was immediately dejected, but thought it over. She thought that she was pretty good. Her kunai skills were fine and she had excellent chakra control. She didn't know many techniques, but she was only a genin, after all.

"We're only genin though. Do you think I could _become_ a good kunoichi?"

Sasuke shrugged and scowled as he continued to eat the ration bar.

"Sure you can… mfffffmmffff… Sakura-chan!"

Naruto was up.

Sakura watched him scarf down the ration bar with very little chewing. Naruto did nothing by the book. But his attitude was contagious. Knowing that he sometimes doubted himself somehow made him human to Sakura.

Somehow, somewhere during the night, Naruto had gone from a useless slacker in her mind to someone she could care for. He wasn't hot, like Sasuke, but he was a friend. And that meant something too.


	9. Chapter 8 -- The Nine-tailed Fox

**Chapter 8**

"Wut."

Naruto looked at the old Hokage behind the desk and that was the only thing that came to mind.

Hiruzen summarized, "On the day of your birth, the kyūbi no kitsune attacked the village. The Fourth Hokage decided to seal it inside you. That was the power you used on the road back from Waves."

"Wut."

Hiruzen sighed.

Naruto blinked.

"Wut."

"I think I broke him," the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, muttered.

Naruto stood vacantly in the office. His team had made their report and the Hokage had requested Naruto stay behind. The door closed. The privacy seals engaged; something Naruto had never really seen before, but he assumed that's what the weird kanji was when it spread everywhere.

And then the world had stopped making sense.

"Wut."

"Naruto-kun, I think you need some time off. You're starting to worry me."

Naruto blinked.

"Huh?"

"Take a week off. Do some reading. Enjoy the company of friends. We can talk about this again when you decide you're ready."

"Ah." Naruto stood quietly in the office waiting for his mind to do something. "Ah," he repeated. Finally, his brain kicked in. "Okay. I'll go home now."

Naruto walked home. He didn't actually remember much. He walked. He knew that because someone bumped into him somewhere along the way and he had to pick himself up after falling over. Or maybe that was a lamppost. He wasn't certain.

He didn't remember closing the door to his apartment. He didn't remember taking off his clothes or starting the shower. He wasn't sure how long he'd even been in the shower except that the water was starting to turn cold and his hands were all wrinkly.

He remembered wrapping himself in a towel and lying on the bed, but he wasn't sure when or even if he'd fallen asleep. The sun was rising and he was dry, so he had to have been lying in bed for quite a while.

He put on clothes, ate something from his fridge, and calmly walked the familiar path from his apartment to the library. He was no longer in a haze of confusion, at least. He had a problem to tackle and he needed more information. He asked the scary librarian-lady about how to use the card catalogue and found several promising books on the kyūbi and bijuu (tailed beasts).

He had spent the last six months improving the skillset involved with deductive reasoning. He'd started with some mystery novels and decided that he wanted to have that skill. He'd read about detectives and putting together the truth from facts. He'd read about drawing conclusions and probabilities. Mostly, he'd learned that the more information a detective had on hand, the better the detective would be at drawing conclusions. It had been why he'd broken into the records department in search of his parents, not that he was much closer to figuring that mystery out.

He grew more and more surprised as he read the books at the table in the alcove tucked away in the back of the library. The bijuu were used as weapons of war for quite a long time. The kyūbi was rumored to have been the personal summoning animal of Madara Uchiha, one of the founders of the village. The Third Great Shinobi War was when the hachibi and its host had shown that sealed bijuu could be used in ways other than as natural disasters or time bombs.

Eventually, Naruto found a history book that explained that the First Hokage had defeated Madara Uchiha and the kyūbi. The kyūbi wasn't seen again for decades. It wasn't seen again until the night it attacked Konohagakure: the night Naruto was born.

Naruto started putting together facts and drawing some conclusions.

Bijuu were sealed into people and objects. Bijuu roamed the world, generally causing destruction when not sealed. For decades after fighting the First Hokage, the kyūbi was not seen in the world. Conclusion: the First probably sealed the kyūbi into someone or something.

More facts came tumbling in.

Objects had a short lifespan when sealing even the weakest of the bijuu. The kyūbi was the strongest bijuu. People could last as long as their lifespans, but often didn't, when used as a container for sealed bijuu. Uzumakis, the clan from the old Village Hidden in the Tides, were renowned for their long lives. The First had been married to an Uzumaki, which was, incidentally, part of the reason why most of the ninja uniforms had a swirl somewhere on them. Conclusion: the First probably sealed the kyūbi into his wife.

Everything was right there in front of him.

Kushina Uzumaki was the only Uzumaki from Uzushiogakure (Village Hidden in the Tides) to have survived until the night of the kyūbi attack. She came to the village shortly before the death of Mito Uzumaki, the First's wife. The reasonable conclusion that the kyūbi was likely sealed inside Mito Uzumaki. Conclusion: both Kushina and Mito had probably been jinchūrikis for the kyūbi.

Kushina Uzumaki being a jinchūriki increased the chances that she was his mother. Something allowed the kyūbi to break free the night Naruto was born. Conclusion: Kushina's pregnancy had probably somehow lead to the kyūbi attack. And by extension, he was only the jinchūriki now because his mother had gotten pregnant. Had anyone known that Mito and Kushina were jinchūrikis?

Was he even correct in his conclusions? They fit so many of the facts. And then other facts began to make sense combined with the conclusions. The Hokage had always spent time with him, even before the bookstore owner had died. The Hokage was a kind man, but he wasn't nearly that chummy with the other orphans. The only thing that separated Naruto from the other orphans was the kyūbi, as far as he knew.

Naruto's stomach churned and he felt sick. He threw up then, violently, onto the floor. His body wracked itself as he heaved until he passed out.

"Hello, Naruto-kun," a familiar voice said.

Naruto turned to see the Hokage sitting in a chair next to the bed.

"Wh—"

"You had food poisoning. You really ought to clean out your refrigerator more often."

"I meant… what will it take to get you to answer my questions? You know more than you lead me to believe."

"What do you want to know?"

"Was my mother Kushina Uzumaki?"

The Hokage nodded nearly imperceptibly.

"Was she a jinchūriki?"

This time the Hokage paused, but nodded again, just barely.

"Did the seal containing the kyūbi break because of her pregnancy?"

The Hokage had hard eyes suddenly. The kindness in them vanished and a battle-hardened presence replaced it. "We don't know for certain. Some of the wounds on the guards were… inconsistent with the kyūbi. There are some other things that indicate that the attack was not an accident."

"Like what?"

"Certain things were in the wrong place. Certain people ended up in strange locations, after the attack."

"You're hiding something." It wasn't a question.

"There are some things, Naruto-kun, that you are better off _not_ knowing."

"Who are you to say?"

The Hokage paused before responding, "I'm the Hokage: the leader of the village."

Naruto shook his head. "I meant, who are you to me? Are you _just_ the Hokage?"

The Hokage didn't show it, but that comment hurt him. He shook his head and softened. "I hope that we are friends, Naruto-kun. But I can't put any friendship above the safety, security, and well-being of the village."

Naruto thought about it before responding. "Ignorance is bliss. But ignorance can also be dangerous. Knowing is always better."

The Hokage almost shook his head. "If I thought that your safety was at stake, I would tell you. That was why I told you about the kyūbi: I thought that knowing would be safer for you than not knowing, at that point."

"Am I an adult? I have the hitai-ate and that usually grants a certain amount of adulthood, but am I an adult or not?"

"Under the law, you aren't considered an adult yet. The village is your official guardian unless you emancipate yourself."

"Do you think I can't handle the truth then? Because I'm still an orphan, but you've told me some things already."

"As I mentioned, Naruto-kun, I think that you are currently both safer and happier not knowing certain things."

Naruto struggled to ask the question that burned in his mind. "Was… Was Kushina… my mother… was she married?"

"Yes. Your birth was planned. Your parents wanted you. They loved you." It had taken a while to understand the nature of the emptiness orphans so often felt, but Naruto's influence had ignited a fire that led to Hiruzen reading up on certain things like psychology. He could have painted or practiced calligraphy, and he did, but the Hokage also made time to try to understand that which he didn't already.

Naruto sat quietly for a while. So many theories about his parents ran through his mind. He was right about Kushina though: she was in fact his mother. He knew that she was well feared by the entry in an old Kumogakure (Village Hidden in the Clouds) bingo book that had been misfiled in the library. The book didn't list known associates, so Naruto had dreamed up candidates based on Kushina's contemporaries.

For a moment, he thought of the Fourth Hokage: the blond hair, the blue eyes. He stifled that thought as the dream of an orphan. The Hokage was obviously not going to tell him anything more and he was already becoming aware that he was at the limit of information publicly available. After several minutes of silence, the Hokage left, telling Naruto to take it easy.

Naruto pulled on his clothes and left the hospital to find the most calming spot he knew: the Hokage monument. The faces carved on the side of the hill were largely unvisited. Most shinobi didn't have the free time to hang around and most civilians didn't have the skills to get through the forests quickly enough to make the visit worthwhile. And they could all see the monument from the village anyway.

Naruto sat atop the carving of the Fourth's head in the cliff face, his knees underneath him. He'd begun a meditation practice soon after team assignments, but hadn't spent as much time on the practice because improving skills he deemed "ninja-important" were his priority. He reached deep into his mind as he went through the practice. He had a goal in mind, so he worked at it.

He found he still had three days left on his Hokage-mandated vacation when he went to sleep that night. And his now completely empty fridge smelled like bleach. He spent two more days practicing simple meditation and chakra molding during the days. He noticed a seal on his stomach when he molded chakra in his tiny bathroom after a shower once and inferred that it held the kyūbi. He also noticed, now that he thought to feel for it, that his chakra was supplemented with another chakra.

Naruto sat, on his final day of vacation, atop the Hokage monument. He focused his mind inward, picturing himself inside the strange seal that held the powerful fox. He thought he'd failed when he felt a warm breeze wash over him, but when he opened his eyes he was no longer atop the Hokage monument.

The maintenance corridor where he found himself was dimly lit, with flickering bulbs and pipes attached to the walls. The floor was covered in a layer of viscous liquid that Naruto didn't really want to ponder.

He walked, his footfalls echoing down the halls, until he came to a large room that ended in a massive jail cell. He couldn't see behind the bars of the cell because the flickering lights weren't bright enough.

"**TO WHAT DO I OWE THIS VISIT?**" boomed a deep, growling voice.

Naruto jumped when the voice reverberated unexpectedly. He definitely wasn't scared, just startled. Really.

"I… ummm… wanted to ask you some questions."

The laughter echoing through the halls wasn't scary either. And the glowing, giant, red eye shapes on the other side of the bars weren't intimidating him. Not at all. Who would be scared of that?

"Ummm… Will you answer them?"

The laughter intensified. Now Naruto was starting to get pissed. The stupid fox was laughing at him. It wasn't evil, I'm-going-to-destroy-the-world laughter either. This was holy-crap-what-an-idiot laughter. The fox was laughing _at_ him.

"What the hell is so damned funny, huh?" Naruto screamed at the bars.

The laughter got louder.

"Ya know, I should've expected something like this: cruelty, animus, bullying," Naruto said. He was glad he'd been reading so he knew the right words. "You're just like _them_."

The laughter stopped. The fox's roar rattled Naruto's teeth. "**I AM NOTHING LIKE **_**THEM**_**! I AM HATRED INCARNATE! I AM THE KYŪBI NO KITSUNE NO YŌKO!"** (Nine-tailed demon-spirit fox)

Naruto was still pissed. It seemed like he had a well of anger infinitely deep and it washed away his previous fear. Not that he was afraid before, of course. The liquid at Naruto's feet began to bubble and glow red, but he didn't notice.

"You pick on anyone weaker than you! You hurt everyone! That's what _they_ do! You're _exactly_ like them!"

The bubbles were getting larger and the liquid turned a deeper red.

"**YOU DARE?! YOU… YOU… FUCKING HUMAN!"**

"You're _exactly_ like the people in the village, you damned stupid fox!"

The fox roared again. Naruto finally noticed that the light had gotten brighter. The liquid was glowing enough to light up the area. Naruto saw the fox then, behind the bars. It was enormous. Its nine tails whipped behind it violently. And it was _enraged_. He'd read the word before and thought he knew what it meant, but it wasn't until watching the kyūbi that he truly understood it.

It shocked him out of his own anger and he realized that the anger he was tapping into wasn't entirely his own. He had been tapping into the kyūbi's anger through his chakra.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled.

The kyūbi kept raging, but the liquid in the strange place had already stopped bubbling and was barely luminescent anymore.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled again.

The kyūbi ignored him. Naruto watched the fox roar and smash the gate with its head and whip it with its tails and claw the bars. Naruto sighed and sat down. The kyūbi, after several straight minutes of this, finally sat back down in front of the bars when the dark enveloped the cell.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said as he looked up at the great beast.

The kyūbi blinked and frowned.

"I mean it."

The kyūbi narrowed its eyes at the boy, deciding to take in the details. Naruto had blond hair, just like the stupid Fourth Hokage. He was small and a little puny: obviously still a child. He wore orange, but it was all heavy clothes that would help protect him. He had a ninja forehead plate with the symbol for the Village Hidden in the Leaves engraved on it tied around his head. He also looked a little goofy.

This was partly the boy's mental self-image though. It would be based on how he really looked, but it was also a reflection of how he _felt_ he looked. Something else bothered the kyūbi, but the giant creature couldn't quite peg it.

"This is part of my nindō, my ninja way. I never give up and I never go back on my word. I swear to you: I am sorry that I called you names."

The image in front of the kyūbi wavered and, for a split-second as the boy spoke, the boy looked like a full-grown-man version of himself, dressed in a flack-vest and blue clothes. The kyūbi first thought that it was the Fourth, but the whisker marks were on the man's cheeks and he didn't wear a coat. It was a momentary flicker of how the boy saw himself, but it gave the kyūbi pause.

The kyūbi settled down into a ball, wrapping its tails around itself as it curled up on the ground. Not that Naruto could see because the cell was too dark.

"**WHAT DID YOU COME HERE TO ASK?**"

Naruto looked up at the glowing red eyes. It was the only thing visible in the cavernous room since the liquid stopped glowing.

"I read that you fought the Shodai (First) Hokage many years ago, but I haven't found any reports of you being out in the world. Were you sealed this whole time?"

"**I GOT OUT FOR LESS THAN AN HOUR A WHILE AGO, BUT MOSTLY YES.**"

"There are long periods during the Clan Wars Period that you aren't mentioned at all. Were you sealed those times as well?"

"**NO.**"

"So you spent time free in the world without incident. Is that right?"

"**YES.**"

"What do you want?"

"**WHAT?**"

"I want to be the Hokage because there are people I want to protect and this is my home. But I also want to have more friends and family and for the world to acknowledge me. I want everyone to be my friends. You obviously don't want to spend all day, every day killing people and destroying things. Do you want friends? Do you want to spend your existence doing something else?"

The kyūbi didn't respond.

"Being sealed, imprisoned, wasn't your idea. What happened; the first time, when they sealed you into Mito?"

"**HASHIRAMA SENJU, THE SANCTIMONIOUS PRICK, WANTED TO DEPRIVE THE UCHIHA OF A WEAPON.**"

"So you really were Madara's weapon? A tool?" Naruto was getting upset as he said it. He didn't like the idea of people being used, even if the person was a giant beast of destruction. Haku had killed himself because he thought of himself as only a tool.

"**OH, YES. I WAS UNDER HIS CONTROL. I THOUGHT I WAS FREE WHEN HASHIRAMA DEFEATED MADARA, BUT THEN I WAS SEALED AWAY IN THE UZUMAKI."**

"Under his control? What do you mean?"

"**THE SHARINGAN: IT CAN CONTROL EVEN THE BIJUU.**"

"That's horrible," Naruto said with a shudder. "But it wasn't the Shodai, sorry, Hashirama Senju who sealed you?"

The kyūbi grunted.

"Wait. I thought Madara was the only one who could really control you. Does that mean that the Senju were afraid that another Uchiha would do it?"

The kyūbi grunted again.

Naruto began putting pieces of information together.

A sharingan could control the kyūbi. Something was fishy about the night he was born: people were killed by something other than the kyūbi. And just a few years later, Itachi Uchiha wiped the entire Uchiha clan out, except for Sasuke. There was a pattern, but Naruto couldn't see it.

"The night you were sealed into me, was someone controlling you with a sharingan?"

"**SOME STUPID BASTARD WAS USING MADARA'S TECHNIQUE! I HATE THOSE FUCKING EYES! I FUCKING **_**HATE**_** THOSE ACCURSED EYES!**"

Naruto began to think.

Someone had plots or schemes or whatever going. His mother was attacked the night he was born. The seal that contained the kyūbi on his mother was weak and someone knew that. The guards protecting his mother had been attacked by a person and the kyūbi had been controlled by a sharingan.

"I hate that someone used you. That really pisses me off."

'_What do you think you know and how do you think you know it?' _Naruto couldn't help thinking it, now that he was stumped.

"What are you?" Naruto muttered.

"**WHAT?**"

"I'd like to introduce myself to you."

"**WHY?**"

"I'll tell you my name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future… that sort of stuff."

The kyūbi growled.

"And then you can tell me about yourself."

The kyūbi growled louder.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My hobbies are reading, trying to improve myself, and eating ramen. I like ramen, Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, and even Sasuke. And Sarutobi-jiji too. I hate the three minutes that it takes to prepare instant ramen. My dream is to become Hokage and be acknowledged by everyone."

The kyūbi growled again.

"Your turn."

The growl deepened.

Naruto tapped his foot and waited.

"**I HATE YOU.**"

"So that's a dislike then. That's okay. I'll change your mind about that. Please continue."

The kyūbi growled. Naruto waited. The kyūbi stopped growling. Naruto waited.

"**PFFT. MY NAME IS KURAMA. MY HOBBY IS WAITING IN PRISONS. I LIKE VERY LITTLE AND DON'T LIKE A WHOLE LOT, MOSTLY AND ESPECIALLY LYING, CHEATING HUMANS. MY DREAM IS FOR HUMANITY TO CHANGE.**"

"See? Now we know each other a little bit. Isn't that better?"

"**YOU'RE AN ANNOYING, DEMANDING BRAT.**"

"But it's better knowing about each other. You aren't as bad as everyone thinks."

Naruto couldn't see what rattled the bars, but the kyūbi roared again and the bars rattled. It was mildly intimidating. The dust falling down didn't help.

"I think I should spend some time here every day. It can't be healthy to be alone like this."

"**GO AWAY!**"

"Okay, but I'll be back again tomorrow. Maybe we can play a game or something, eh?"

The kyūbi roared and rattled the cage and Naruto ended his meditation, leaving the great beast alone in its cage. After Naruto left, however, the kyūbi let small smile onto his face in the dark and thought, '_We shall see, human. We shall see._'


End file.
